欧盟国家养老金改革：反思和借鉴

欧盟国家养老金改革与中国养老金制度建设和调整具有不同的历史起点和任务,因此欧盟改革的理论和经验难以直接用于中国实践。不过,欧盟国家养老金改革的进程对于目前有争议的中国养老金制度调整,可能有着重要的启示。     

欧洲银行业联盟架构设计及建设进展

作为应对欧债危机的重要举措,2012年6月,欧盟委员会提出建立欧洲银行业联盟的设想。文章介绍了近一年多来欧洲银行业联盟的三大支柱——单一监管机制、单一处置机制和存款保险机制的架构设计和建设推进情况。目前,银行业单一监管机制建设已基本完成,欧央行发挥维护金融稳定的主导作用;对单一处置机制重要性的认识得到提升,但一些核心问题仍有待明确;存款保险机制建设仍可能保留在各国层面。     

EU enlargement and the evolution of European production networks

We analyse the regionalisation of the European Union's production networks and the impact of enlargement by looking at trends in trade in intermediate and final products in different types of technology between 1995 and 2007. We find that enlargement has coincided with quite major changes in the structure of trade within and beyond the EU. Overall we find that the new member states of the EU12 have become a more important source of goods both for the sub-region itself and for the EU15.We look at trends in different types of products and technologies. We find that there has been greater regional consolidation of production networks in lower tech goods, while in high tech goods global sources of inputs - especially ASEAN + 3 - are becoming more important. Overall the EU12 is becoming a more important source of both intermediate and final products, especially within its own sub-region. This evolution makes the companies in the sub-region very dependent on the EU home market.     

European Union Enlargement Announcement and Corporate Valuations

This study explores the effects of the European Union accession announcement on the valuations of companies in the prospective member states. I examine firm level data from ten countries which joined the EU in May 2004. My analysis reveals that the announcement of these countries’ future EU membership in November 2001 significantly increased the Tobin’s Q ratios of their publicly traded firms several years before formal membership was granted. This increase in firm value can likely be attributed to a reduced cost of capital and/or an expected increase in growth opportunities and cash flows, resulting from the announcement of their countries’ inclusion in the EU.     

欧盟产业结构调整之路

中国不能重蹈欧美国家向外转移制造业导致实体经济"空心化"的覆辙。反之,则应该夯实实体经济基础,利用好产业升级和低碳等新兴产业的发展契机,提高制造业的科技水平及附加值,打造优势产业,提高中国制造业在地区和全球层面的竞争力     

Financial freedom and bank efficiency: Evidence from the European Union

This paper investigates the dynamics between the financial freedom counterparts of the economic freedom index drawn from the Heritage Foundation database and bank efficiency levels. We rely on a large sample of commercial banks operating in the 27 European Union member states over the 2000s. After estimating bank-specific efficiency scores using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), we develop a truncated regression model combined with bootstrapped confidence intervals to test our main hypotheses. Results suggest that the higher the degree of an economy’s financial freedom, the higher the benefits for banks in terms of cost advantages and overall efficiency. Our results also show that the effects of financial freedom on bank efficiency tend to be more pronounced in countries with freer political systems in which governments formulate and implement sound policies and higher quality governance.     

欧洲银行业联盟评述

2013年7月10日,欧盟委员会就银行“单一处置机制”发布新方案。这标志着欧洲银行业联盟继续向前推进。然而,前进之路不会太平坦,仍有许多障碍需要克服。     

Turkey's accession to the European Union

Turkey's accession to the European Union is often discussed by posing the simple question of whether it should be admitted. Polite legal discussions will quickly point to the Copenhagen criteria for admission of a state to the Union. Less polite discussion will raise issues regarding whether the whole state can be characterized as a religious state, and a Muslim state at that, whether there is independent government interest beyond the military and religious interests and whether more than 2 million Turks already living in the European Union give Europe any idea of what it might be like to have Turkey admitted in its entirety. In the end, this author concludes that given all of these obstacles, perhaps the most telling question to be asked is why Turkey has been invited in the first place.     

Financing Retirement in the European Union

This paper explores how EU countries can address various challenges (including the aging of the population) affecting their systems of old-age income support. It presents two scenarios illustrating the most important uncertainties surrounding the major developments that affect the pension systems of the EU. To diversify these risks, EU governments should act on several fronts. In addition to the formation of human capital (especially that of children), employment (especially that of older workers) should be boosted. This calls for social insurance reform with more emphasis on individual saving schemes. Pension schemes should be more explicit about how they share demographic and other risks. Countries that currently rely heavily on public pay-as-you-go (PAYG) schemes should stimulate private pensions by gradually reducing PAYG benefits collected by high-income earners, by issuing new financial instruments, and by conducting intergenerational risk sharing through the tax system.