http://www.VoxEU.org Recent articles added to VoxEU.org en http://www.VoxEU.org/index.php?q=node/4580 Gonzalo Reyes, Jan van Ours, Milan Vodopivec, 9 February 2010

How can policymakers provide unemployment insurance while minimising adverse incentives? This column presents new evidence from Chile suggesting unemployment insurance savings accounts can increase job-finding rates. This provides a strong endorsement of the savings account component to reform traditional unemployment insurance programmes.

Full Article: Effects of unemployment insurance savings accounts: New insights from Chile ]]> Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://www.VoxEU.org/index.php?q=node/4580 http://www.VoxEU.org/index.php?q=node/4581 Susan Ariel Aaronson, 9 February 2010

Is the WTO doomed? This column argues that the WTO’s credibility is waning and that to get it back it needs to reign in China’s erratic governance. China’s failure to enforce trade laws threatens the concept of mutual benefit that underpins the WTO. China is broken, and a broken China could break the WTO.

Full Article: How disciplining China could save the WTO ]]> Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://www.VoxEU.org/index.php?q=node/4581 http://www.VoxEU.org/index.php?q=node/4569 Martin Cihák, Tigran Poghosyan, 8 February 2010

How safe are the banks? This column provides new evidence on what determines the likelihood of an EU bank experiencing distress, suggesting that bank risks have converged across EU members, and that a more tightly integrated financial regulation should reflect this. The results also call for a greater role for market discipline.

Full Article: Anatomy of distress: New insight on the probability of bank turmoil]]> Mon, 08 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://www.VoxEU.org/index.php?q=node/4569 http://www.VoxEU.org/index.php?q=node/4578 Enrico Perotti, 7 February 2010

Obama’s plans for bank taxation took markets, policymakers, and academics by surprise, leaving all parties now debating its merits. This column suggests an alternative. By raising a Pigouvian tax based on banks’ individual contribution to systemic-risk creation, the policy would target the externality caused by funding fragility while raising the cost of opportunistic risk creation in good times.

Full Article: Tax banks to discourage systemic-risk creation, not to fund bailouts ]]> Sun, 07 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://www.VoxEU.org/index.php?q=node/4578 http://www.VoxEU.org/index.php?q=node/4565 Rebecca Hellerstein, William Ryan, 6 February 2010

Will the dollar lose its dominant role in international transactions? This column argues that this will happen quite slowly, if at all. It presents new evidence that in developing economies, demand for dollars hinges much more on historical factors than on recent experience. The highest inflation rate recorded within a country over the past 30 years explains flows of cash dollars more compellingly than recent inflation rates.

Full Article: Memory and the dollar: New evidence on international demand]]> Sat, 06 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://www.VoxEU.org/index.php?q=node/4565 http://www.VoxEU.org/index.php?q=node/4568 Shang-Jin Wei, 6 February 2010

What is the connection between China’s one-child policy and its savings glut? This column provides a pioneering explanation. China’s surplus of men has produced a highly competitive marriage market, driving up China’s savings rate and, therefore, global imbalances.

Full Article: The mystery of Chinese savings]]> Sat, 06 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://www.VoxEU.org/index.php?q=node/4568 http://www.VoxEU.org/index.php?q=node/4567 Alessandro Beber, Marco Pagano, 6 February 2010

Did the bans on short selling achieve their stated purpose of restoring order to the stock market and limiting unwarranted drops in prices? This column presents new evidence from 30 countries arguing that the effect on stock prices was at best neutral, the impact on market liquidity was clearly detrimental – especially for small-cap and high-risk stocks, and that the ban slowed down price discovery.

Full Article: Short-selling bans in the crisis: A misguided policy]]> Sat, 06 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://www.VoxEU.org/index.php?q=node/4567 http://www.VoxEU.org/index.php?q=node/4558 Giancarlo Corsetti, André Meier, Gernot Müller , 5 February 2010

The staggering growth in public debt as a result of the financial crisis has led many to call for significant fiscal retrenchment. This column argues that such looming expenditure cuts will actually enhance the effectiveness of today’s fiscal stimulus. But if monetary policy is constrained by the zero lower bound on policy rates, the spending cuts should not come too early.

Full Article: After the stimulus, the big retrenchment]]> Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://www.VoxEU.org/index.php?q=node/4558 http://www.VoxEU.org/index.php?q=node/4557 Rahel Aichele, Gabriel Felbermayr, 4 February 2010

Production-based CO2 emission targets can give rise to carbon leakage, as firms relocate to countries without carbon policies. This column shows that Kyoto countries’ embodied CO2 imports have been increasing by about 50% since the Protocol was signed. Climate policies may have lead to additional carbon imports without sizeable domestic reductions. Consumption-based targets should therefore play a more prominent role in climate policies.

Full Article: Kyoto and the carbon content of trade]]> Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://www.VoxEU.org/index.php?q=node/4557 http://www.VoxEU.org/index.php?q=node/4549 Rolando Avendano, Javier Santiso, 3 February 2010

Are sovereign wealth funds substantially different in their investment choices from other types of institutional investor? This column compares the holdings of two groups of sovereign and mutual funds – and finds a few differences. Contrary to popular belief, evidence suggests that sovereign and mutual funds’ investments do not differ when looking at the political profile of targeted countries.

Full Article: Are sovereign wealth fund investments politically biased?]]> Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT http://www.VoxEU.org/index.php?q=node/4549