Paul Veenendaal

Sustainability of Government Debt in the EU

This unique and fascinating book illustrates that the ‘credit crunch’ and the ensuing financial and economic crisis of 2007–2009 did not only strike hard at the economy in the Western world, but also at its policymakers, at economics as a scientific discipline and, more specifically, at the process of European integration itself.

A Value-Added Trade Perspective on Recent Patterns in World Trade

Our contribution uses trade in value added statistics to assess the causes of the recent world trade slowdown. We conclude that world trade elasticity has fallen due to a combination of regional and cyclical changes during the economic crisis. A cyclical factor is the lower cumulative trade intensity of consumer goods compared to investment goods. We find no evidence for a structural trade slowdown. In contrast, foreign value-added shares in final exports in Europe and East Asia are trending towards new peaks. The regional changes are caused by an increase of the total import share for regions with a low trade elasticity and decreased import elasticities in some regions.