Short Term Prospects for the European Economy : evaluating the current slowdown and the aftermath of the September 11th attack on the USA. report produced by the EUROFRAME group of Research Institutes.

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Untouchability And Public Infrastructure

Caste rules prohibit the sharing of water between castes as a contact made by an untouchable with water ritually taints the source. Despite untouchability practices being outlawed by the Constitution of India, they are still vigorous and violently enforced. This is what is investigated in this article. The aim is to evidence a relationship between the number of acts of violence against untouchables and the way water is distributed. Our results show that, the more individual the source, the less scope there is for potential ritual pollution and hence, the lower the number of violent acts against untouchables. This is the first analysis, to the best of our knowledge, that quantifies and evidences the enforcement of untouchability rules with regard to water distribution. This paper underlines that water improvement programs have the nice side effect of alleviating caste based violence on top of improving sanitation.Castes, India, water distribution, infrastructures, violence.

Annex A9 : Disparities in the euro area: a problem for European economic policy.

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Global financial crisis: the French policy answer in a EU perspective.

La crise financière des années 2007-2009 a conduit à un retour en force des analyses et des politiques keynésiennes. L’article analyse les contradictions entre une crise de nature structurelle, la mise en œuvre à une très large échelle de remèdes de type keynésien et le refus de remettre en cause le capitalisme financier. La crise a amené le gouvernement français à retrouver les positions françaises traditionnelles sur l’importance des interventions publiques. Les mesures de soutien à l’activité ont été limitées, mais la France a été protégée par l’importance de ses stabilisateurs automatiques et ses archaïsmes économiques et financiers. Le gouvernement n’a toutefois pas renoncé à l’objectif de fortes réductions des dépenses publiques. Les instances européennes se sont résigné au gonflement des déficits publics, mais n’ont guère organisé une stratégie coordonnée de relance. Elles continuent à réclamer des engagements de retour à l’équilibre des finances publiques, indépendamment de l’évolution conjoncturelle. Pourtant, la hausse des déficits et des dettes publiques n’a pas provoqué de hausse des taux longs et des anticipations d’inflation. Deux grandes questions demeurent : les politiques budgétaires et monétaires de soutien peuvent-elles permettre à elles seules de relancer la croissance si la crise est causé par des déséquilibres structurels ? Les classes dirigeantes réussiront-elles à utiliser le déséquilibre actuel des finances publiques pour réduire massivement les dépenses publiques et sociales ?The 2007-2009 crisis has led to a return of Keynesian analyses and policies. The paper analyses the contradictions between a structural crisis, the implementation at a very large scale of Keynesian policies and the denial to undermine financial capitalism. The crisis has led the French government to endorse French traditional views according to which government actions have a major role. Although stimulus measures have been limited in France, the economy has been less affected than others thanks to the size of its automatic stabilisers and financial and economic archaisms. However the French government has not abandoned the objective of large public expenditure cuts. European authorities have had to admit that public deficits would rise but they have not implemented coordinated stimulus policies. EU countries are still requested to bring their budgetary positions back into balance, independently of economic developments. Yet the rise in public deficits and debts has not generated any rise in long-term interest rates and in inflation expectations. Two main issues remain: can fiscal and monetary policies alone be expected to boost activity if the roots of the crisis lie in structural imbalances? Will fiscal exit strategies be an opportunity for leading classes to cut massively social and public expenditures?EU economies; French economy; fiscal policies; Financial crisis;

Appendix 6 : The New Member States and the Stability and Growth Pact : Needs for adapting in the prospect of euro area membership.

The New Member States (NMS) have to comply with the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) rules: public deficits below 3% of GDP and public debts below 60% of GDP, although they cannot be subject to fines as long as they are not members of the euro area. Most of the NMS currently run higher than 3% of GDP deficits but lower than 60% of GDP debts. The implementation of the surveillance procedures had led 6 of the 12 NMS to be under an excessive deficit procedure (EDP) soon after they joined the EU. Are the SGP rules adequate for the NMS? The SGP rules were not designed for catching-up countries, but for ‘old member States’. In particular, the initial rules of the SGP did not account for investment needs. A Golden rule for public finances would be especially appropriate for the NMS, since it would allow them to borrow to finance investment needs that will benefit not only current but also future generations. We argue that SGP rules are not adapted for the NMS and that better rules should be introduced in the prospect of euro area enlargement. Section 1 provides a brief assessment of the current situation of public finance criteria in the NMS. Section 2 considers the rationale of SGP framework for the NMS. Section 3 advocates for a better fiscal rule: the golden rule. Section 4 concludes.

Stability and Growth Pact: Stability without growth?.

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