Policy Contribution
To contribute more to the green transition, companies should start to make investment decisions based on integrated-value assessment, weighing up the environmental and social impacts alongside the financial returns.
Blog Post
The European Central Bank portfolio is skewed towards the brown economy, reflecting a bias in the market. Can and should the bank deviate from the market allocation?
Policy Contribution
"The current design of green bonds means they aren't fulfilling their potential. We propose an alternative: issuance of regular bonds with attached green certificates that ensure earmarking for green purposes. The new design would reduce financing costs and in turn would provide incentives to start a greater number of environmentally-friendly projects."
Blog Post
Europe has a heavily bank-based financial structure, but bank-based financial structures are associated with higher systemic risk than market-based financial structures. The higher level of systemic risk in Europe suggests caution when pursuing policies that stimulate risk taking and debt creation by banks, especially in the wake of COVID-19. Priority should be given to financial diversification and equity finance.
Working Paper
Governments and companies can reinforce each other in their pursuit of sustainable development, which is based on three pillars: economic, social and environmental. An impact economy, in which governments and companies balance profit and impact, is best placed to achieve the United Nations sustainable development goals.
Policy Contribution
Though outside the euro area, Denmark and Sweden could benefit from joining the European Union’s banking union. It would provide protection in case of any need to resolve at national level a large bank with a Scandinavian footprint, and would mark a choice in favour of more cross-border banking. But joining the banking union would also involve some loss of decision-making power.
Blog Post
Government policy faces various challenges. Before the COVID-19 outbreak, the European Union set ambitious targets to reduce carbon emissions. Now in the midst of the pandemic, the EU has temporarily lifted state-aid rules allowing governments to steer companies through the crisis and to minimise job losses using public money. This column suggests combining these policies by attaching green conditions to state aid. In that way, we can aim for a green recovery.
Opinion
We had not seen a common challenge as clear as this pandemic. The sum of national actions and programs is likely to be insufficient.
External Publication
This article examines whether there are regional differences in house price growth within European countries and find a stronger cyclical pattern in capital cities compared to other regions, indicating a clear rationale for regional-level tools. The authors recommend using macro-prudential measures at a regional level, in particular loan-to-value and debt-to-income limits, to dampen the housing boom-bust cycle.