An energy tax revision to reduce debt, boost investment and employment and facilitate the adoption of other structural reforms

In a context of lack of confidence, depressed investment and aggregate demand as well as deflation risks, all of these phenomena occurring despite a conjunction of favourable factors (cheap oil, weaker euro and very accommodative monetary policy), we propose to take up the proposal of the European Commission to revise the Energy Taxation Directive, introduced in 2011 and withdrawn last year due to the opposition of the Parliament and the Council.

Essais Union européenne Économie

Taxing “dead capital” to make it more productive

At least since the birth of modern capitalism in eighteenth-century Europe, competition has been recognized by many economists and other theoreticians of ethics and social sciences as an essential driver of progress. Either applied to trade, politics or science, competition, they claimed, stimulates innovation and confronts products, services, parties or ideas on a marketplace that rewards the best and sanctions the worst, alike a permanent race where spectators are also expected to be voters, as it should be the case in liberal democracies.

Essais Économie

On inequality and possible remedies

In the famous Parable of the Talents, the master awards his servants who managed to multiply wealth and punishes the one who preferred to hide the treasure and made a sterile use of it. The story ends on a harsh judgment: “for to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away” (Matthew 25:14–30).

Essais Économie

Taxing non-renewable resource extraction: for more transparency, fairness and sustainability

Illicit financial flows are one of the symptoms of unharnessed globalisation. While trade and finance have become more and more international, with an accelerated rhythm since the end of the Cold War, governance has not kept pace and all states, including the most powerful, face the consequences of non-cooperative behavior and free ride, from other state entities as well as from non-state actors whose influence can exceed that of entire countries.

Essais Économie

« Ah, vous devez être stagiaire ! » – réflexions sur la condition de la jeunesse contemporaine

Si vous êtes âgé de moins de 28 ans, que vous avez poursuivi des études supérieures dans un domaine autre que les sciences dures et que vous travaillez dans le secteur public, la culture ou les media, vous avez de fortes chances d’être toujours stagiaire. Même dans l’hypothèse où ce ne serait pas le cas, vos interlocuteurs vous considéreront de prime abord probablement comme tel, tant la condition de stagiaire est devenue la norme pour ces secteurs dans nos économies développées.

Économie