The School of Public Policy of CEU cordially invites you to a lecture by

Wendy Carlin

Professor of Economics at University College London and Research Fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

Labour market institutions, fiscal policy, and the functioning of the Eurozone

Abstract: Using fiscal policy for stabilization is fraught with difficulty. But for some members of the Eurozone, it may be necessary. The reason is that the Eurozone comprises member countries with very different labour market institutions. When ‘rational’ and ‘non-rational’ wage setting institutions co-exist in a common currency area, divergent performance can arise even in the absence of asymmetric shocks. Stabilizing by using fiscal policy is more challenging than it is by using monetary policy when a country has an inflation-targeting central bank because it requires targeting the price level. 

Wendy Carlin is Professor of Economics at University College London and Research Fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR). She is leading an international project - the CORE project - to reform the undergraduate economics curriculum. She has published widely on macroeconomics, institutions and economic performance, and the economics of transition. She has co-authored with David Soskice three macroeconomics books, the most recent is Macroeconomics: Institutions, Instability and the Financial System (OUP, 2015). She is a member of the Expert Advisory Panel of the UK's Office for Budget Responsibility. In 2015, she was awarded a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) for services to economics and public finance.