This policy brief details the necessary amounts for dignified living according to official EU figures and the perceptions of Europeans, as well as the actual disposable income of families in the lower part of the income distribution across EU member states. The research shows that households not... Find out more

This Policy Brief examines prospects for Greek following the recent end of the stabilisation programme put into place as a result of the eurozone debt crisis. The brief argues that rather than stabilising the Greece the programme has left it weaker and more vulnerable to future crisis. It critically... Find out more

This policy brief evaluates the backdrop to the European Commission’s proposals for the EU’s coming seven-year budget round, or Multi-annual Financial Framework. As usual, the negotiations are a careful balancing act between net contributors to the EU budget and its main beneficiaries and are... Find out more

Are we currently living through a new industrial and technological revolution? Does it differ qualitatively from similar revolutions in the past? How can we gauge its political implications? Researchers working within the school of evolutionary economics, in particular those who embrace the concept... Find out more

Tax avoidance by corporations is widespread in Europe and costs governments more than €70bn annually. This revenue loss, and the legal ramifications of strategies that multinational companies use to avoid paying taxes, starves public services of funding, limits the bargaining power of trade unions... Find out more

This policy brief discusses the implications for labour and trade unions of new forms of work that are organised via distributed digital networks using the internet.The authors focus on what has been called ‘commons-based peer production’ but also address the more controversial case of ‘platform... Find out more

This policy brief criticizes the European Economic Governance system for being too narrowly focused on economic growth and competitiveness.Starting from the 2009 report by the Commission on the measurement of economic performance and social progress (Stiglitz-Sen-Fitoussi), the brief proposes a new... Find out more

For better or worse, the digitalisation of the economy has become an unavoidable theme in political and social debates. This new industrial revolution is predicted to disrupt the processes of production, the world of work and society at large. How can we prepare for this and how can we anticipate... Find out more

This policy brief analyses Ireland's economic recovery and concludes that the narrative about fiscal austerity and internal devaluation producing an Irish growth miracle is simplistic and misleading. The author proves that the Irish economy's strong growth performance since mid-2014 can be... Find out more

This policy brief discusses the risks of deflation for the European economy. It critically evaluates the European economic governance for not having averted this risk and discusses how a more coordinated approach to both fiscal policy and collective wage bargaining, both aiming at national inflation... Find out more