IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/liu/liucej/v9y2012i2p179-195.html

The Sovereign Debt Crisis in Europe, Save Banks Not States

Author

Listed:
  • Hans-Bernd Schäfer

Abstract

The European central bank is a bank of banks but not a bank of states. This reduces the capabilities of member states to finance deficits. The role of the central bank to cope with the debt crises is institutionally more limited than in most other Western countries. The European Stability Mechanism has not enough financial power to bail out all distressed countries in the Eurozone. Eurobonds could increase lending capacities but would require a change of the European treaty, which is not in sight. They violate the no bail out clause of Art.125 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. The policy option is therefore debt restructuring of distressed countries and a bailout of financial institutions to avoid conflagration. This option would also shift some of the burden to creditors outside the Eurozone rather than to shift all risk on the people in solvent countries within the Eurozone.

Suggested Citation

  • Hans-Bernd Schäfer, 2012. "The Sovereign Debt Crisis in Europe, Save Banks Not States," European Journal of Comparative Economics, Cattaneo University (LIUC), vol. 9(2), pages 179-195, August.
  • Handle: RePEc:liu:liucej:v:9:y:2012:i:2:p:179-195
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ejce.liuc.it/18242979201202/182429792012090201.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Keuschnigg, Christian, 2012. "Welche Finanz- und Wirtschaftspolitik braucht Europa?," Economics Working Paper Series 1201, University of St. Gallen, School of Economics and Political Science.
    2. Hans‐Werner Sinn, 2006. "The Pathological Export Boom and the Bazaar Effect: How to Solve the German Puzzle," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(9), pages 1157-1175, September.
    3. Jakob De Haan & Helge Berger & David‐Jan Jansen, 2004. "Why has the Stability and Growth Pact Failed?," International Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 7(2), pages 235-260, July.
    4. repec:ecr:col043:6567 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Simplice A. Asongu, Nicholas M. Odhiambo, 2021. "Taxation, foreign aid and political governance in Africa," European Journal of Comparative Economics, Cattaneo University (LIUC), vol. 18(2), pages 217-249, December.
    2. Enrico Marelli & Marcello Signorelli, 2015. "Convergence, Crisis and Unemployment in Europe: The Need for Innovative Policies," Croatian Economic Survey, The Institute of Economics, Zagreb, vol. 17(2), pages 5-56, December.
    3. Schäfer Hans-Bernd & Bigus Jochen, 2016. "Consequences of Different Eurobond Proposals," Review of Law & Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 12(3), pages 523-553, November.
    4. Basu, Kaushik, 2014. "Fiscal policy as an instrument of investment and growth," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6850, The World Bank.
    5. Asongu Simplice, 2014. "Taxation, foreign aid and political governance: figures to the facts of a celebrated literature," Working Papers of the African Governance and Development Institute. 14/022, African Governance and Development Institute..
    6. Basu Kaushik, 2016. "The Economics and Law of Sovereign Debt and Risk Sharing: Some Lessons from the Eurozone Crisis," Review of Law & Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 12(3), pages 495-506, November.
    7. I. Bukina S. & И. Букина С., 2018. "Политика Финансовой Консолидации И Развитие Экономики В Условиях Внешних Шоков // The Policy Of Financial Consolidation And Economic Development In The Face Of External Shocks," Финансы: теория и практика/Finance: Theory and Practice // Finance: Theory and Practice, ФГОБУВО Финансовый университет при Правительстве Российской Федерации // Financial University under The Government of Russian Federation, vol. 22(1), pages 6-21.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Naudé, Wim & Nagler, Paula, 2022. "The Ossified Economy: The Case of Germany, 1870-2020," IZA Discussion Papers 15607, IZA Network @ LISER.
    2. Lionel Fontagné & Sophie Hatte, 2013. "European High-End Products in International Competition," PSE - G-MOND WORKING PAPERS hal-00959394, HAL.
    3. Los, Bart & Timmer, Marcel & Vries, Gaaitzen J. de, 2013. "Made in Europe? Trends in International Production Fragmentation," GGDC Research Memorandum GD-131, Groningen Growth and Development Centre, University of Groningen.
    4. Fabian Bornhorst & Mr. Ashoka Mody, 2012. "Tests of German Resilience," IMF Working Papers 2012/239, International Monetary Fund.
    5. Zongsen Zou & Xiuling Wang & Dengtian Feng, 2020. "Adhere to the rules or be discretionary? Empirical evidence from the euro area," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 15(2), pages 501-525, April.
    6. Lars Calmfors & Giancarlo Corsetti & Michael P. Devereux & Gilles Saint-Paul & Hans-Werner Sinn & Jan-Egbert Sturm & Xavier Vives, 2008. "Chapter 3: The effect of globalisation on Western European jobs: curse or blessing?," EEAG Report on the European Economy, CESifo, vol. 0, pages 71-104, February.
    7. Raphaël Chiappini, 2012. "Un réexamen de la relation entre commerce et Investissement Direct à l'étranger (IDE) à partir d'un modèle en panel dynamique Le cas de l'Allemagne, la France et l'Italie," Working Papers hal-00744405, HAL.
    8. Robert Kollmann & Marco Ratto & Werner Roeger & Jan in't Veld & Lukas Vogel, 2015. "What drives the German current account? And how does it affect other EU Member States?," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 30(81), pages 47-93.
    9. Christian Dustmann & Bernd Fitzenberger & Uta Schönberg & Alexandra Spitz‑Oener, 2014. "Od chorego człowieka Europy do ekonomicznej megagwiazdy: odradzająca się gospodarka Niemiec," Gospodarka Narodowa. The Polish Journal of Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, issue 6, pages 149-172.
    10. Roman Goldbach & Christian Fahrholz, 2011. "The euro area's common default risk: Evidence on the Commission's impact on European fiscal affairs," European Union Politics, , vol. 12(4), pages 507-528, December.
    11. Hassel, Anke, 2011. "The paradox of liberalization – understanding dualism and the recovery of the German political economy," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 53212, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    12. Jacques Jaussaud & Serge Rey, 2012. "FDI to Japan and Trade Flows: A Comparison of BRICs, Asian Tigers and Developed Countries," Working papers of CATT hal-01880347, HAL.
    13. repec:dgr:rugsom:14009-eef is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Camilla Mariotto, 2022. "The Implementation of Economic Rules: From the Stability and Growth Pact to the European Semester," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(1), pages 40-57, January.
    15. Holger Görg & Aoife Hanley, 2011. "Services Outsourcing And Innovation: An Empirical Investigation," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 49(2), pages 321-333, April.
    16. Calabrese, Giuseppe Giulio & Manello, Alessandro, 2018. "Firm internationalization and performance: Evidence for designing policies," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 40(6), pages 1221-1242.
    17. Niels Gilbert & Jeroen Hessel & Silvie Verkaart, 2013. "Towards a Stable Monetary Union: What Role for Eurobonds?," DNB Working Papers 379, Netherlands Central Bank, Research Department.
    18. David Marsden, 2015. "The future of the German industrial relations model [Die Zukunft des deutschen Modells der Arbeitsbeziehungen]," Journal for Labour Market Research, Springer;Institute for Employment Research/ Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), vol. 48(2), pages 169-187, August.
    19. Enno Schröder, 2015. "Eurozone Imbalances: Measuring the Contribution of Expenditure Switching and Expenditure Volumes 1990-2013," Working Papers 1508, New School for Social Research, Department of Economics, revised Sep 2015.
    20. Holger Görg & Aoife Hanley, 2007. "International Services Outsourcing and Innovation: An Empirical Investigation," Discussion Papers 07/43, University of Nottingham, GEP.
    21. Giuliodori, Massimo & Beetsma, Roel, 2008. "On the relationship between fiscal plans in the European Union: An empirical analysis based on real-time data," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 221-242, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • G01 - Financial Economics - - General - - - Financial Crises
    • K33 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - International Law

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:liu:liucej:v:9:y:2012:i:2:p:179-195. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Laura Ballestra (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/liuccit.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.