Written by: Karolina Zubel
Almost 70% of the world’s population is expected to live in cities by 2050 according to the United Nations (UN) World Urbanization Prospects. In fact the RUAF Global Partnership on Sustainable Urban Agriculture and Food Systems — a consortium of experts working towards promotion of sustainable agriculture — estimates that rapid population growth coupled with global urbanisation will contribute to poverty and food insecurity if not addressed properly.
RUAF believes that urban agriculture can be crucial to feeding these new city dwellers. Indeed, according to a 2018 study published in the journal Earth’s Future, urban farms…
By:Jan Hagemejer | CASE Macroeconomics and Trade Director
Jan J. Michałek | Professor at the University of Warsaw
More than 15 years after the first EU enlargement we take on the challenge to (re)evaluate the long-term gains of the Central and Eastern Europe economies from the EU accession. The forthcoming article elaborates on the overall economic gains, measured as extra GDP per capita that can be attributed to the EU accession for the New Member States over time compared to a hypothetical scenario of having remained outside of the EU.
The results suggest the presence of significant gains from the…
The Covid-19 pandemic, which broke out in March 2020 and continued through subsequent waves in fall 2020 and spring 2021, resulted in a fallout in the global economic activity and world output contraction by 3.3% during the last year as shown by the recent IMF survey.
The losses in the output led to lower income and revenues of the taxpayers, which in turn diminished the tax revenue generating capacity of the governments. At the same time, the governments responded to the crisis with extensive fiscal support measures, amounting to more than USD 13 billion globally. …
The rise of nationalism in recent years globally as well as related arrival to power of nationalist politicians in many countries are some of the factors that have contributed to resurgence of trade protectionism all over the world. This is particularly the case in the United States, the United Kingdom, and several European countries. Indeed, Washington under the Trump administration has introduced import duties on aluminium and steel originating from many countries (including the EU member states). Besides, Euroscepticism and the Brexit have challenged the principles of free movement and economic integration in Europe in recent years…
Katarzyna Sidło | CASE Director of the Middle East and North Africa Department
The original version of this article appeared in an e-book “Gender Gap in the Mediterranean during the Covid-19 pandemic” published by the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists & Democrats in the European Parliament.
The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has profoundly affected societies and economies all over the world, and the Middle East and North Africa Region (MENA)[1] has been no exception. The International Monetary Fund predicts that the economies in the region will have contracted by -5.0% in 2020 and will only grow by 2.1% in…
Machteld Bergsta | CASE Economist
A Shift in Macroeconomics?
From the onset of the pandemic, there has been a widespread acceptance among economists and governments that to protect households and firms and boost demand in response to the Covid-19 crisis, governments must temporarily accept a large increase in public debt.
The OECD argues that in case the recovery lacks vigor, it might be necessary to continue expansionary fiscal policy for a sustained period to stimulate broader household consumption and business investment. This willingness to increase government spending, with government debt reaching up to 89.8% of GDP in the EU in Q3 2020 (up from 79.3%…
Mehmet Burak Turgut | CASE Senior Economist
2020 in a Nutshell
As the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projections show, it is expected that the global economy shrunk significantly in 2020 with an estimated 4.4% negative GDP growth rate. The EU economy was not an exception as the economic activity almost halted and the real GDP fell at double-digit rates in the first half of 2020 and it is predicted to close 2020 with 7.4% negative real GDP growth as the recent European Commission forecasts show. The employment has also suffered from a continuous drop in economic activity with the unemployment rate in the EU set to hit…
Karolina Zubel | CASE Economist
A Renovation Wave for Europe — Greening our buildings, creating jobs, improving lives’ (COM(2020)662) is new strategy aimed at doubling the renovation rate of existing building stock across the European Union (EU) in the next decade that was announced earlier (October 14th) this year. By improving energy efficiency refurbishments and installation of zero-emission heat sources, as well as ‘smart home’ technologies and appliances, the Renovation Wave strategy is to be one of the ways for the EU Member States (MS) to achieve climate neutrality by 2050 in accordance with the broader European Green Deal objectives.
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The article is based on a study prepared by CASE — Center for Social and Economic Research and European Academy Berlin within the project entitled ‘Norma praworządności i jej oddziaływanie społeczne jako czynniki rozwoju gospodarczego Analiza porównawcza Niemiec i Polski’/‘Das Prinzip der Rechtsstaatlichkeit und ihre soziale Wirkung als Determinante des ökonomischen Wachstums Eine vergleichende Analyse Deutschlands und Polens’ (№2018–26).
The rule of law is, as a matter of course, a sine qua non for a modern democratic society. It is also a necessary condition for existence of a stable, effective, and sustainable market economy. The connection between the rule of…
Adam Śmietanka | CASE Economist
The topic of the VAT compliance has gained a particular significance in the recent years in Poland. It has become a part of a recurrent, heated political debate and has been often used instrumentally by politicians and experts alike. However, a growing interest in the forgone VAT revenues is not just limited to Poland. Thus, as the estimation techniques and underlying data on VAT components have been improving, Poland and many other countries in the EU have seized the opportunity to scrutinise national VAT Gaps and estimate their size using various techniques.
This article discusses…
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