Thu 12/03/2015 - 12:00 On February 24, following days of tense discussions, the new government in Athens reached an agreement with its eurozone creditors that includes a package of immediate reforms and a four-month extension of the financial assistance program. But, despite Europe’s collective sigh of relief, the compromise does not preclude the need for further tough negotiations on a new financial-assistance program that should be introduced by the end of June.

Tue 05/05/2015 - 12:00 Since the financial crisis erupted in 2008, governments in advanced countries have been under significant pressure. In many countries, tax receipts abruptly collapsed when the economy contracted, income dwindled, and real-estate transactions came to a halt. The fall in tax revenues was in most cases sudden, deep, and lasting. Governments had no choice but to raise taxes or to adjust to leaner times.

Fri 04/09/2015 - 12:00 Global growth disappoints again. A year ago, the International Monetary Fund expected world output to rise 4% in 2015. Now the Fund is forecasting 3.3% for the year – about the same as in 2013 and 2014, and more than a full percentage point below the 2000-2007 average. By Jean Pisani-Ferry

Mon 12/10/2015 - 12:00 By Jean Pisani-Ferry - Most people hate finance, viewing it as the epitome of irresponsibility and greed. But, even after causing a once-in-a-century recession and unemployment for millions, finance looks indispensable for preventing an even worse catastrophe: climate change.

Because the climate is a common good, economists generally advocate the use of an international carbon price to internalize climate risk, to incorporate as many countries as possible into an agreement and to thwart “free-rider” strategies (Appendix 1). There are two main ways of moving in this direction: allowances markets and taxation. Their implementation entails respecting certain basic economic principles, but also taking into account the lessons provided by twenty-five years of carbon pricing experience around the world.

Wed 09/12/2015 - 12:00 By Jean Pisani-Ferry. Ten or 20 years ago, the existential question facing the European Union was whether it still had a purpose in a globalized world. The question today is whether the EU can respond effectively to major external shocks.

Fri 16/10/2015 - 12:00 By Dominique Finon , CNRS Research Director Emeritus; Researcher at the CIRED; World Bank Consultant on the impacts of carbon pricing on energy policies conducted in the emerging countries.

Mon 11/01/2016 - 12:00 By Jean Pisani-Ferry. In Europe, 2015 began with the far-left Syriza party’s election victory in Greece. It ended with another three elections that attested to increasing political polarization. In Portugal, the Socialist Party formed an alliance with its former archenemy, the Communists. In Poland, the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party won enough support to govern on its own. And in Spain, the emergence of Podemos, another new left-wing party, has ended the traditional hegemony of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party on the center left and the Partido Popular on the center right. (In France, moreover, the far-right National Front, led by Marine Le Pen, showed its strength in the first round of December’s regional elections, though it eventually failed to win any).