Clark Center Forum

How should Europeans respond to the powerful economic forces and the daunting policy challenges they face? Among voters, policy makers and pundits across the region, views differ widely: both over what has been happening in Europe’s economies and over what will happen if different approaches are tried. To support this debate, Chicago Booth’s Initiative on Global Markets has assembled a panel of leading European economic experts.



The panel’s goal is to explore the experts’ views on some of the most important policy questions facing the region – issues such as trade, migration, taxes, banks, markets, and competition – and to share these views directly with the public in a simple way. 

 

This week's IGM European Economics Experts Panel statements:

A) Freer movement of goods and services across borders within Europe has made the average western European citizen better off since the 1980s.

B) Freer movement of goods and services across borders within Europe has made many low-skilled western European citizens worse off since the 1980s.

 

This week's IGM European Economics Experts Panel statements:

A) Freer movement of people to live and work across borders within Europe has made the average western European citizen better off since the 1980s.

B) Freer movement of people to live and work across borders within Europe has made many low-skilled western European citizens worse off since the 1980s. 

This week's IGM European Economic Experts Panel statements:

A) Giving tax incentives to specific firms to locate operations in a country typically generates domestic benefits that outweigh the costs to the country providing the incentives.

B) Europe as a whole benefits when European cities or countries compete with each other by giving tax incentives to firms to locate operations in their jurisdictions. 

This week's IGM European Economic Experts Panel statement:

On the whole, the shift from state to private ownership of many industrial assets in central and eastern European countries after communism has increased productivity in those countries.

 

This week's IGM European Economic Experts Panel statement:

In general, using more congestion charges in crowded transportation networks — such as higher tolls during peak travel times in cities, and peak fees for airplane takeoff and landing slots — and using the proceeds to lower other taxes would make citizens on average better off. 

This week's IGM Economic Experts Panel statements:

A)  If all of the “Seven actions to protect American workers” in President-elect Trump’s 100-day plan (see link) are enacted, it will more likely than not improve the economic prospects of middle-class Americans over the next decade.

B)  If all of the “Seven actions to protect American workers” in President-elect Trump’s 100-day plan are enacted, it will more likely than not improve the economic prospects of low-skilled Americans over the next decade. 

This week's IGM Economic Experts Panel statement:

A merger of AT&T and Time Warner would likely increase consumer surplus over the ensuing decade. 

This week's IGM Economic Experts Panel statement:

Long run fiscal sustainability in the US will require some combination of cuts in currently promised Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security benefits and/or tax increases that include higher taxes on households with incomes below $250,000.