Bruegel Event Recordings

This Bruegel public event was organised in the framework of MICROPROD, a research project that aims to improve our understanding of productivity, its drivers and the way we measure it. Panellists and participants took stock of the current challenges in productivity measurement, discussed the preliminary findings of the project and reflect on future research and policy priorities. Listen to the presentation of Filippo di Mauro here.

This event looks at how the rise of China is affecting global value chains.

Are large differences in the resilience of individual economies related to differences in the quality of country-level institutions that shape the absorption and response to these shocks? At this event we'll discuss the evolution of labour markets, and the role of institutional design and good process.

This event will assess the progress the EU has made with the convergence of national insolvency rules, and why progress in this area remains essential in achieving financial integration in euro area, and in further work on the EU capital markets union. This also relates to the broader discussion of how stronger insolvency rules can foster more rapid firm exit and productivity growth.

This year’s EU-Japan conference, jointly organised by Bruegel and The Graduate Institute, Kobe University, will discuss Competition policy in the era of Artificial Intelligence. The conference will discuss the challenges brought by the economic impact of AI, with particular focus on the impact on competition as well as related policy challenges and ways to increase AI’s positive impact on the economy. We will also discuss the role of EU and Japan in the ongoing process of AI development. The focus on AI for this coming year is specifically relevant as Japan, like Europe as a whole, is at risk of being over-shadowed by the US and China. After the signature of the EU-Japan Partnership Agreement there is also much more scope and a strong ground for collaboration between the two regions.

This year’s EU-Japan conference, jointly organised by Bruegel and The Graduate Institute, Kobe University, will discuss Competition policy in the era of Artificial Intelligence. The conference will discuss the challenges brought by the economic impact of AI, with particular focus on the impact on competition as well as related policy challenges and ways to increase AI’s positive impact on the economy. We will also discuss the role of EU and Japan in the ongoing process of AI development. The focus on AI for this coming year is specifically relevant as Japan, like Europe as a whole, is at risk of being over-shadowed by the US and China. After the signature of the EU-Japan Partnership Agreement there is also much more scope and a strong ground for collaboration between the two regions.

This event discussed the quality of public finance. There is evidence that improving the composition of public finance can improve growth and reduce equality. Would focusing on the quality of fiscal expenses and revenues rather than the budget deficit, be appropriate? Speakers: Chair: Maria Demertzis, Deputy Director Boris Cournede, Deputy Head of Division, Public Economics Division, OECD Sven Langedijk, Adviser on fiscal policy and the policy mix, European Commission, DG ECFIN Francesco Papadia, Senior Fellow, Bruegel Read more about this event at: https://bruegel.org/events/public-finance-time-for-a-quality-check/

The provision of financial services is profoundly changing worldwide – so much so that many commentators are predicting the death of banking as we know it. The threat of banks’ extinction is not new; it’s been heralded many times in the past. For centuries, as banks have expanded and evolved, they have faced competition from other types of financial institutions. Despite high barriers to entry and as a result, relatively low turnover, many commentators have anticipated the end of the traditional banking business model. Today, we are again experiencing radical changes in the way households and businesses transact. The primary drivers are rapid advances in technology and post-crisis changes in the financial regulatory landscape, both of which have fuelled increased competition and encouraged new entrants in the provision of financial services. Critically, today’s competition to big bank business models emanates from nonbank firms whose core strategy centres around technological innovation (Big Tech and FinTech

This is a session that Bruegel organised at the World Trade Organization (WTO) Public Forum in Geneva. The participation of China in the WTO has been anything but smooth. Its self-proclaimed “socialist market economy” system has alienated its trading partners. Two diametrically opposite approaches (and a few variations of them) have been proposed to deal with the emerging problems. One is to demand that China changes its economic regime. The other is to stay idle and accept that the WTO must accommodate different economic regimes, no matter how idiosyncratic. At this event we want to propose a third way. In our view, the problems posed by China are due to the fact that, while in the past the GATT/WTO had to address the accession of socialist countries or of big trading nations, it never had to deal with a big, socialist country like China. In order to retain its principles and yet accommodate China, the WTO needs to translate some of its implicit legal understanding into explicit treaty language. Speakers

On 11 September we were honoured to welcome S. Iswaran, Singapore’s Minister for Communications and Information and Minister-in-charge of Trade Relations who engaged in a conversation with Cecilia Malmström, European Commissioner for Trade. They discussed EU-Singapore relations in the context of the wider region and times of global upheaval. The EU and Singapore signed a Free Trade Agreement and an Investment Protection Agreement in 2018. These agreements are an important symbol for the countries’ commitment to free trade in a time of rising protectionism and could also signal a future FTA with ASEAN.

While the euro area has emerged from its deep economic crisis and interest rates are at historically low levels, multiple challenges remain. How complete is Europe’s monetary union? Do the available tools to prevent and correct fiscal, financial and macroeconomic imbalances reflect a reasonable compromise between first-best solutions and political reality? Is the euro area ready for a next recession or an economic crisis? What should be the reform priorities?

What’s the EU’s offer to Africa? No region is more vulnerable to current global challenges than Africa, with negative spill-overs for the EU. Simultaneously, Africa offers opportunities for investment and trade – a fact well recognised by other global actors. What can the EU’s new leadership offer Africa? And what does Africa expect from its neighbour? During this interactive session, we will discuss how innovations in migration, finance, trade and global health can take the EU-Africa relationship to a new level.

America and China are engaged in an economic geopolitical struggle for supremacy. This is a threat to the multilateral system the European Union has relied on for nearly seven decades and to the EU’s separation of external economic relationships from geopolitics. What can the EU’s incoming leadership do to protect Europe’s economic autonomy?

The shift to digitalised services is triggering a profound transformation in the nature of work. Will increasing use of AI, machine learning, robots and big data lead to massive unemployment? How are non-traditional workers and the self-employed (such as drivers for ride-hailing services) to obtain health insurance and pensions? What role should public policy play going forward?

All too often trade is claimed to be the cause of, or a solution to, all the world’s problems. But these assertions are frequently based on outmoded concepts or plain misunderstandings, willful or otherwise. Reflecting on current developments, EU Commissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström speaks about the importance of evidence-based policymaking in international trade. Looking forward, her speech will also highlight the EU’s role in rescuing and reforming the multilateral trading system, with the World Trade Organization at its heart.

When the last Commission took office in 2014, Europe was consumed by the eurozone crisis. Today, the incoming leadership must decide how to deal with a variety of issues. There is the US-China trade war, climate change & biodiversity, cohesion in the EU and the euro area, but also the role of the Commission as a political and/or technocratic institution to be considered.

Abstract Digital technologies are expected to be the drivers of growth, but evidence of significant productivity boosts is scant. Also, many people fear digitalisation will lead to more polarised economic structures. What corporate strategies and public policy support are needed to turn the potential of digital technologies into opportunities for sustainable growth of EU firms, and for addressing EU societal challenges? Chair Reinhilde Veugelers, Senior Fellow, Bruegel Panel Claire Bury, Deputy Director-General, European Commission, DG CONNECT Joakim Reiter, Group External Affairs Director, Vodafone Victoria Roig, Head of the transformation office of Santander Digital and Group Executive Vice-President

Abstract Putting a price on carbon has - for good economic reasons - become an undisputed policy proposal. But in reality, many economic activities (e.g., heating or transportation) are still not covered by such a price in many countries and existing carbon prices (e.g., in the EU Emission Trading System) are considered insufficient to drastically reduce emissions. In this session we want to discuss how to overcome the hurdles to more sensible carbon prices. Chair Georg Zachmann / Senior Fellow, Bruegel Panel Brigitte Knopf, Secretary General, Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change Lapo Pistelli, Executive Vice President, Eni Jasper Wesseling, Deputy director-general tax and customs policy and legislation at the Ministry of Finance of the Netherlands

Europe’s trade policy agenda for the next 5 years promises to be challenging. With the US and China engaged in an escalating trade war, the US threatening to impose additional tariffs on cars and China continuing to promote national champions, global trade and the world trading system are increasingly under severe threat, with direct consequences for the EU. How should and will the EU position itself vis-à-vis the US and China, both bilaterally and multilaterally in the context of the WTO system? Chair Alicia García-Herrero / Senior Fellow, Bruegel Panel Yi Huang, Associate Professor & Pictet Chair in Finance and Development, The Graduate Institute, Geneva Kate Kalutkiewicz, Senior Trade Representative, US Mission to the EU Bernd Lange, Chair of the European Parliament’s committee on International Trade André Sapir, Senior Fellow, Bruegel Reza Moghadam, Vice Chairman for Sovereigns and the Official Institutions, Morgan Stanley

In this event and at the start of the new cycle of the European Institutions, Bruegel publishes a series of memos to the new generation of lawmakers. Our scholars lay out their suggestions for a fairer, greener and braver Europe.