This document presents a summary of the key findings of the EIB Investment Report 2018/2019. As the bank's flagship research report, the Investment Report aims to deepen our understanding of investment and investment financing in the EU.
The Investment Report, issued annually by the European Investment Bank, provides a comprehensive overview and analysis of investment and the financing of investment in the European Union. It combines the exploration of investment trends with in-depth analysis, focusing especially on the drivers and barriers to investment activity. The report leverages on a unique set of databases and survey data, including EIBIS, an annual survey of 12 500 firms in Europe, which focuses on their assessment of investment and investment finance conditions, and which allows analysis with firm balance sheet information. The report provides critical inputs to policy debates on the need for public action on investment, and on the types of intervention that can have the greatest impact. This year's report addresses a moment of economic recovery in which investment growth, overall, is strong, but downside risks to the economic outlook are rising. It identifies many ways in which current investment is still structurally inadequate, given the legacy effects of the recent crisis and the great challenges that lie ahead. There is an urgent need to re-tool Europe, from its infrastructure and innovation ecosystem, through to its businesses and workers, to enhance prosperity and social cohesion.
"Regional development banks (RDB) have become increasingly important in the world economy, but have also been relatively under-researched to date. This timely volume addresses this lack of attention by providing a comprehensive, comparative, and empirically informed analysis of their origins, evolution, and contemporary role in the world economy through to the second decade of the twenty-first century. The editors provide an analytical framework that includes a revised categorization of RDB by geographic operation and function. In part one, the chapter authors offer detailed analyses of the origins, evolution, and contemporary role of the major RDB, including the Inter-American Development Bank, the African Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the European Investment Bank, the Central American Bank, the Andean Development Corporation, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. In part two, the authors engage in comparative analyses of key topics on RDB, examining their initial design and their changing business models, their shifting role in promoting policies supported by the United States as hegemon and the private sector. The volume ends with a critical reflection on the role played by RDB to date and a strong defence of the need for these banks in an increasingly complex world economy"--Publisher's description.
This outlook provides a focused assessment of the state of public capital in the major European countries and identifies areas where public investment could contribute more to stable and sustainable growth. A European Public Investment Outlook brings together contributions from a range of international authors from diverse intellectual and professional backgrounds, providing a valuable resource for the policy-making community in Europe to feed their discussion on public investment. The volume both offers sector-specific advice and highlights larger areas which should be prioritized in the policy debate (from transport to social capital, R&D and the environment). The Outlook is structured into two parts: the chapters of Part I respectively explore public investment trends in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Europe as a whole, and illuminate how the legacy of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis is one of insufficient public investment. Part II investigates some areas into which resources could be channelled to reverse the recent trend and provide European economies with an adequate public capital stock. The essays in this outlook collectively foster a broad approach to and definition of public investment, that is today more relevant than ever. Offering up a timely and clear case for the elimination of bias against investment in European fiscal rules, this outlook is a welcome contribution to the European debate, aimed both at policy makers and general readers.
The Irish economy has continued to expand strongly, consolidating its post-crisis recovery. Nonetheless, uncertainty remains elevated and legacies of the financial crisis continue to threaten economic resilience. Fiscal prudence is required, given rising fiscal costs from ageing, emerging capacity constraints and international tax policy changes that could weaken tax receipts.
Measuring Economic Growth and Productivity: Foundations, KLEMS Production Models, and Extensions presents new insights into the causes, mechanisms and results of growth in national and regional accounts. It demonstrates the versatility and usefulness of the KLEMS databases, which generate internationally comparable industry-level data on outputs, inputs and productivity. By rethinking economic development beyond existing measurements, the book's contributors align the measurement of growth and productivity to contemporary global challenges, addressing the need for measurements as well as the Gross Domestic Product. All contributors in this foundational volume are recognized experts in their fields, all inspired by the path-breaking research of Dale W. Jorgenson. - Demonstrates how an approach based on sources of economic growth (KLEMS – capital, labor, energy, materials and services) can be used to analyze economic growth and productivity - Includes examples covering the G7, E7, EU, Latin America, Norway, China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, India and other South Asian countries - Examines the effects of digital, information, communication and integrated technologies on national and regional economies
Austrian citizens enjoy high living standards, well-being and social cohesion. Until the ongoing global slowdown, robust employment growth in the private sector kept domestic demand and investment remarkably robust. More people moved into work and inward migration has been strong. At the same time, new challenges related to social cohesion challenges have emerged, as increased skill differences in the population and diverging productivity performance across firms have generated a higher range of outcomes for job quality and market wages than in the past. Myriad entrepreneurial firms across all regions should better adapt to new megatrends of ageing, globalisation and digitalisation.
Taking an early lead on digitalisation is crucial to Europe's lasting competitiveness. Our newest digitalisation report sheds light on the state of digitalisation in European countries: The adoption of digital technologies by firms in the European Union is improving, but it has not yet closed the gap with the United States; While some EU countries are at the global forefront of digital transformation, others risk being left behind. Digitalisation provides a unique opportunity to improve European firms' global competitiveness. To close the digital divide, Europe needs to increase investment and to create ecosystems that support innovation.
The coronavirus crisis accelerated the digital transformation of Europe's economy. Before the pandemic, cutting-edge digital technologies were primarily used by the most innovative and modern firms. The COVID-19 crisis, however, brought the digital transformation to the larger society — and made digitalisation integral to firms' survival. Digital firms were better able to cope with the disruption unleashed by the pandemic, and they were less likely than non-digital firms to see sales decline significantly from 2020 onwards. Many of them used the crisis an opportunity to accelerate their digitalisation. The Digitalisation in Europe 2021-2022 report uses results from the EIB Investment Survey (EIBIS), conducted from April to July 2021, to shed light on the level of digitalisation among Europe's small and medium firms.
This issue includes a general assessment, a special chapter on the effects of digitalisation on productivity and a chapter summarising developments and providing projections for each individual country.