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A European Unemployment Benefit Scheme

Author: Bertelsmann Stiftung

Publisher: Verlag Bertelsmann Stiftung

Published: 2014-03-01

Total Pages: 175

ISBN-13: 3867936013

The recent euro crisis and the dramatic increase of unemployment in some euro countries have triggered a renewed interest in a fiscal capacity for the European Union to stabilize the economy of its member states. One of the proposed instruments is a common European unemployment insurance. In this book Sebastian Dullien from the HTW Berlin provides and evaluates a blueprint for such a scheme. Building on lessons from the unemployment insurance in the United States of America, he outlines how a European unemployment benefit scheme could be constructed to provide significant stabilization to national business cycles, yet without strongly extending social protection in Europe. Macroeconomic stabilization effects and payment flows between countries are simulated and options, potential pitfalls and existing concerns discussed.

A European Unemployment Benefit Scheme

Author: Miroslav Beblavý

Publisher:

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 31

ISBN-13: 9789279649738

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This paper aims to frame the debate on a European Unemployment Benefits Scheme (EUBS) as a shock absorber for EU economies around its origins on the one hand, and its most controversial aspects, on the other. The paper focuses on several key aspects of the EUBS, the first being the options for financing the scheme. This can be divided into those requiring the imposition of an ad-hoc tax in member countries and those relying on general contributions from these countries, which can in turn be financed in various ways. Second, it focuses on the extent to which harmonisation of current national unemployment benefit schemes would be needed. Harmonisation implies changing national legislation and practices, which creates political and administrative difficulties. Third, the study examines the problem of schemes generating regular monetary transfers from certain countries to others, and the associated problem of moral hazard. There are two broad ways to solve this problem: ex-ante or ex-post balancing. Fourth, it discusses which countries should join the EUBS. There are arguments for limiting membership to euro-area members, or for extending it to the entire European Union, but participation should in any case be mandatory. Finally, it reviews the costs of the various forms of EUBSs proposed in the literature, concluding that they tend to stay below 1% of the member countries’ aggregate GDP.

Design of a European Unemployment Benefit Scheme

Author:

Publisher:

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 136

ISBN-13: 9789279649721

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This report constitutes deliverable 6 of the study entitled "Feasibility and Added Value of a European Unemployment Benefits Scheme" commissioned by DG EMPL and carried out by a Consortium led by CEPS. The objective of this deliverable is to examine different possible options for the scope and design of a European Unemployment Benefits Scheme (EUBS henceforth). To this end, the report provides a thorough analysis of the 18 policy options and their main features. Two types of EUBS are distinguished throughout this report: equivalent and genuine schemes (representing 4 and 14 out of the 18 options respectively). For both types, a thorough analysis of the features of the different options is performed. This analysis draws heavily on the related literature, simulations exercises as well as other work that is being done for the project. This report is structured as follows. The second section comprises a general presentation of the 18 policy options. The section clarifies the difference between equivalent and genuine schemes and points out the key features through which both types, and the different options within these types, can be differentiated. The third section presents a comparison of the options with the schemes in other federations, inside and outside the EU. The fourth section of the report constitutes a note on the distribution of unemployment shocks in a range of countries across Europe. In the fifth section, which is the core of this report, the features of which the 18 policy options are composed (i.e. the parameters that define the different schemes) are presented. Some examples of these features are the trigger of the scheme and the eligibility criteria. In the report, a conceptual and operational definition of each feature is put forward and discussed. This involves more details on how each feature was designed and on why certain choices were made in the design process. The sixth section covers the issue of minimum requirements, accession criteria, convergence and related topics. The last section of this report consists of 18 overview tables (fiches, one for each option).

Feasibility and Added Value of a European Unemployment Benefit Scheme

Author: Miroslav Beblavý

Publisher:

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 103

ISBN-13: 9789279649691

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This report constitutes the synthesis report of a comprehensive study on the “Feasibility and Added Value of a European Unemployment Benefits Scheme”. The aim of the study is to assess the legal and operational feasibility of introducing a European unemployment benefits scheme (EUBS), as well as the economic added value that such as scheme could bring. This study was initiated by the European Parliament and commissioned by the European Commission, Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion (Contract VC/2015/0006).

A Euro Area wide Unemployment Insurance to Improve Macroeconomic Stability

Author: Christian Kitzmueller

Publisher: GRIN Verlag

Published: 2015-01-19

Total Pages: 94

ISBN-13: 3656878455

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Master's Thesis from the year 2014 in the subject Economics - Finance, grade: 1, Donau-Universität Krems (Department for Management and Economics), course: International Financial Environment, language: English, abstract: The member states of the euro area have delegated the framing of monetary policy to a European Central Bank, while fiscal policy remains in responsibility of the national governments. In a monetary union, counter-cyclical fiscal policy can deliver only limited help to minimize the loss of monetary policy for adjustment to idiosyncratic shocks. As fiscal capacity at EMU level could transfer a significant part of the cyclical aspects of fiscal policy to the su¬pranational level and help the euro area members to focus their fiscal policy on structural balances. A variety of such risk-sharing mechanisms have been suggested in the academic literature. This Master’s Thesis evaluates the concept of euro area wide unemployment insurance, in comparison with cyclical transfers between the Eurozone members based on their business cycle position. The European unemployment insurance scheme surpasses other concepts with regards to the criteria distributional neutrality and transparency, both of which are essential in order to gain support of European policymakers and voters.

The Stabilisation Properties of a European Unemployment Benefit Scheme

Author: Daniel Gros

Publisher:

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 7

ISBN-13:

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"The (macro-economic) stabilisation properties of a potential European Unemployment Benefit Scheme (EUBS) are the focus of this commentary by Daniel Gros. He notes that any such scheme would involve many other aspects, both political and economic, but it could be argued that a EUBS, especially one that pays benefits directly to individuals, would constitute a powerful illustration of the benefits of 'Europe'. It might also be argued that the creation of a EUBS could foster the upward convergence of unemployment systems (although this is not the subject of this paper). The author finds that assessing only the stabilisation to be achieved through the creation of a European Unemployment Benefit Scheme (EUBS) is very difficult. There a many potential ways in which a EUBS could be implemented, with profound implications for the potential stabilisation impact that could range from the negligible to the significant. A cursory analysis of actual expenditure on unemployment benefits reveals that member states with higher unemployment rates do not necessarily always spend more on benefits. Moreover, actual expenditure on unemployment benefits seems to react only minimally to actual increases in unemployment, at least for small cyclical variations. This suggests that, outside deep recessions, the fiscal importance of the variations of unemployment over the business cycle might have been overrated."--

Legal Options and Limits for the Establishment of a European Unemployment Benefit Scheme

Author:

Publisher:

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 63

ISBN-13: 9789279649752

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The European legal dimension of an establishment of a European Unemployment Benefit Scheme is only little discussed. Namely the European Commission stated in its communication on 'Strengthening the Social Dimension of the Economic and Monetary Union' in the chapter on EUBS: 'Such measures would require a substantial Treaty change, since, at present, the EU does not have the competence to adopt them, either for the euro area or for the EU as a whole. The EU cannot engage the budgetary responsibilities of its Member States. The EU's current competences are limited, as regards employment, to incentive measures designed to encourage cooperation between Member States and to support their action, excluding any harmonisation (see Article 149 TFEU). As regards social security and social protection, its competence is limited to adopting directives setting minimum requirements for Member States' systems whose fundamental principles and financial equilibrium are set by Member States (see Article 153 TFEU). Given the current framework of competences and the system of own resources of the Treaties, the flexibility clause of Article 352 cannot be used either, as the establishment of macroeconomic stabilisation systems would exceed the general framework of the current Treaties and thus amount to amending the Treaties without following the requisite procedures. In other words, this final stage would require a fundamental overhaul of the Treaties, which would also have to be accompanied -- as detailed in the blueprint -- by commensurate political integration, ensuring democratic legitimacy and accountability.' The legal impossibility to introduce a EUBS within the existing Treaty framework is supported by Fuchs. In contrast to these statements, Kullas and Sohn concluded in a report that a 'stormy day' insurance could be realised on the basis of Article 122(2) TFEU and other equivalent systems on the basis of Article 352(1) TFEU. Eichenhofer, Repasi and Barnard and De Baere consider Article 153 TFEU as possible legal base. Next to these articles and statements, there are, until now, no in-depth legal analyses on possible European Unemployment Benefit Schemes. The present legal analysis refers to the existing Treaties and examines to which extent a EUBS can be established without a Treaty amendment.

Chances and Risks of a European Unemployment Benefit Scheme

Author: Mathias Dolls

Publisher:

Published: 2016

Total Pages:

ISBN-13:

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The Eurozone debt crisis has revived the debate about deeper fiscal integration in the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). Some observers argue that fiscal risk sharing is necessary to make the Eurozone more resilient to macroeconomic shocks and to avoid its break-up. However, the main concerns relate to the issues of permanent transfers across Member States and moral hazard. The 2012 Four Presidents' Report suggested that fiscal integration could include a common unemployment insurance system. A White Paper outlining further steps necessary to complete EMU is to be released by the European Commission in the spring of 2017. This ZEW policy brief presents new research findings on the stabilizing and redistributive effects of a common unemployment insurance scheme for the euro area (henceforth EMU-UI).1 It provides insights regarding its potential added value and discusses moral hazard issues.

Design of a European Unemployment Benefit Scheme

Author: Miroslav Beblavý

Publisher:

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 146

ISBN-13:

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In this extensive report, we assess how a European unemployment benefit scheme (EUBS) could be designed. To this end, we examine 18 EUBS variants, 4 equivalent and 14 genuine schemes, and their key features. Some of these features can also be found in national unemployment benefit schemes, while others are more related to the EUBS context. We analyse the design of a common EUBS in previous literature and combine these insights with results for the legal and operational options as well as constraints and the economic value added obtained as part of our study on the “Feasibility and Added Value of a European Unemployment Benefit Scheme”. All this information is integrated into a summary fiche for each of the 18 EUBS variants studied. In addition, the report deals with a range of policy issues including convergence, minimum requirements and accession criteria.

Stabilising the European Economic and Monetary Union

Author: Miroslav Beblavý

Publisher:

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 20

ISBN-13: 9789279649684

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Most EU Member States are equipped with a set of powerful instruments to mitigate the effect of economic shocks on employment and income. With the inception of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), countries have lost control over their monetary policy, which instead is now managed centrally at the EMU-level. Fiscal policy, which comprises important automatic stabilisers such as a country’s unemployment insurance scheme, remained a national competence. EMU does not have such a stabilisation mechanism. In the past, EMU’s dual institutional architecture has been strongly criticised and many have called for reform, especially after the financial crisis starting in 2008 and the subsequent European debt crisis. This weakness was also underlined more recently, in the Five Presidents’ Report “Completing Europe’s Economic and Monetary Union” published in 2015, which proposed to introduce in the longer term a fiscal stabilisation function for EMU. Such automatic stabilisation at the euro area level should improve the cushioning of large macroeconomic shocks and thereby make EMU overall more resilient, provided a significant degree of economic and financial integration is achieved, together with further pooling of decision-making on national budgets and democratic accountability. The exact design of such euro area stabilisers requires more in-depth work on the legal, economic and political preconditions. A European unemployment benefits scheme (EUBS) has long been discussed as one possible response to stabilisation needs, among other potential stabilisation mechanisms. In 2014, the European Commission, following a request from the European Parliament, commissioned an investigation into the feasibility and added value of a European Unemployment Benefit Scheme as a fiscal stabilisation mechanism for the Eurozone (for more details on the project, see Annex 1). This study was conducted by a consortium led by the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) and examined 18 EUBS variants (on which more details are provided in Annex 2). It does not represent the Commission’s position. A comparative assessment of the EUBS with other stabilisers, however, was beyond the scope of this study.