Tackling the spread of disinformation Why a co-regulatory approach is the right way forward for the EU. Bertelsmann Stiftung Policy Paper 12 December 2019

In recent years social media platforms have led to an unprecedented increase in the spread of disinformation. Concerns about these new and dynamic ways to spread falsehoods have brought politicians and regulators onto the stage. In this paper Paul-Jasper Dittrich proposes a European co-regulatory approach to tackle disinformation on social media instead of the current self-regulatory approach or direct regulation

Users, Data, Networks A Proposal for Taxing the Digital Economy in the European Single Market. Bertelsmann Stiftung Policy Paper 12 March 2019

Fair taxation of digital businesses will be a key issue in the forthcoming European election campaign. The debate will most likely revolve around the introduction of a new “digital tax” on companies’ turnover, as proposed by the European Commission, for example. In the short term this may be a workable solution, but it does not solve the real underlying problem: the current rules on corporate taxation in the EU are not fit for purpose when it comes to dealing with digital value creation. That is what we want to change with our proposal. To this end, we define clear criteria and principles for assessing digital value creation in company taxation, which should apply EU-wide. Our contribution thus fills a central gap even of those current proposals that do not envisage a new tax, but aim at a change in the system itself

Sustainability of Government Debt in the EU

This paper addresses the sustainability of government debt in Europe and is motivated by the recent debt increases following the crisis. We evaluate the sustainability in a time frame of ten years in which governments will be able to implement budget rules to get budget deficits under control. We develop a fiscal sustainability model for selected EMU member states that uses stochastic inputs based on historic data, closely following van Wijnbergen’s (van Wijnbergen and Budina, 2008) approach. We simulate the development of government debt as a percentage of GDP and show its expectation value including a confidence interval for a member state conditional on deficit reduction scenarios and the behaviour of other EMU member states. Using OECD projections as a baseline, we find that without additional fiscal consolidation and taking into account the public costs of ageing until the end of the projection period, budget deficits in all selected EMU countries will rise and sovereign debt is not sustainable, apart from Belgium. Even ignoring the cost of ageing, consolidation of sovereign debt is necessary for nearly all EMU countries. The consolidation proposed by the OECD would eliminate the doubts on sustainability of Belgium, Dutch, German, Italian, Portuguese and French bonds. For Ireland, Greece and Spain additional actions are required on top of the consolidation in the OECD projections. Together with a review of spillovers and stress-tests performed with our model we conclude that coordination of fiscal policies in the EMU is necessary.EU; government debt; cross border spillovers; euro

On Seperation

The parameters that define \u27good\u27 and \u27bad\u27 craft in architecture are fundamentally changing. The proposition of craft within technology represents a paradox, yet in contemporary architectural education (and practice), we find that technology can actually complement, rather than oppose, ethical design thinking

ONLINE PLATFORMS AND HOW TO REGULATE THEM: AN EU OVERVIEW. Bertelsmann Stiftung Policy Paper No. 227 14 June 2018

The rapid rise of online market places such as Amazon, peer-to-peer platforms like Uber, social networks and other forms of online platforms has characterized the digital transformation of the last decade. These online platforms now play a key role in today’s economy and the functioning and governance of the internet. They have brought real benefits for consumers and businesses in the EU by giving them easier access to products and services and facilitating transactions between them. At the same time, their meteoric growth has caused concerns about market dominance and the widening information and power asymmetry between platforms and citizens, businesses and regulators alike. Online platforms, moreover, challenge the regulatory framework of the Single Market. These challenges often culminate in the call for more “platform regulation” at European level. The aim of this paper is to shed light on these challenges and the European debate on platform regulation. In particular, it seeks to 1.) Provide an overview of existing regulation of online platforms in the Single Market; 2.) Examine current regulatory challenges for the platform economy in the EU; and 3.) Propose guidelines for the future European debate on platform regulation

History and Development of Vocational Education in Kingsport, Tennessee

(From Summary) When one studies the history of Kingsport, there is an ever growing interest developed in the mind of the student with respect to the staunch pioneers and phenomenal growth that the young city has made. Kingsport was incorporated in 1917. The population at that time was 5,692 as revealed by the United States Census Report of 1920. The population in 1930 was 11,914. In 1940 the United States Census Bureau showed Kingsport to have a population of 14,404. In 1945 a new City Directory was published. The City Directory shows that the population of Kingsport and vicinity to be 40,025. The pioneers of Kingsport saw the potential industrial possibilities and called in engineers from other cities to assist in planning and laying out the city. The abundance of natural resources has given employment to thousands of worthy sons and daughters. One can find in Kingsport some rather modern ideas in industrial development and in civic statesmanship