Documents Nicoli, Francesco 5 results

"While the free movement of people is one of the four basic freedoms of the EU, the Single European Labour Market is still far from completion. Today, around 3% of EU citizens and an even smaller number of EU residents from third countries take advantage of the opportunities that the freedom of movement offer. In an effort to contribute to the advancement of the Single European Labour Market, and countering current popular political argumentation, this report by Claire Dhéret, Alex Lazarowicz, Francesco Nicoli, Yves Pascouau and Fabian Zuleeg aims to explore the strategic potential of intra-EU labour mobility for the benefit of the European (Monetary) Union, individual member-state economies and mobile workers themselves.
To this end, the authors propose an ambitious and comprehensive strategy towards labour mobility. This strategy aims to address obstacles to mobility, as well as create incentives to encourage people to move. It also aims to reinforce the role of public policies, both at the EU and national level, in order to address potential costs and optimise a better allocation of human resources."

"Based on a conjoint survey experiment, we explore the support among European citizens for a European Union (EU) budgetary assistance instrument to combat adverse temporary or permanent economic shocks hitting Member States. Suitably designed, there is substantial support for such an EU instrument generally and across the sample countries. Support is broader when budgetary support is conditional on debt reduction in good times and on monies being spent in specific policy areas, in particular healthcare and education. Support also increases when there is a role for the European Commission in terms of monitoring and providing guidance. However, there is little support for policy packages that terminate a programme and impose fines in the case of non-compliance. Further, there is broad acceptance of programmes that entail long-run redistribution towards poorer countries. Financing the assistance through a progressive tax increase is more popular than through a flat tax increase. In general, there is substantial scope for constructing assistance packages that command majority support in all sample countries, particularly if programmes have spending conditionality and progressive tax financing."

"Labour mobility in the EU is comparatively low, despite major efforts from the European Institutions to support cross-border mobility. This study evaluates the potential implications of a European Unemployment Benefits Scheme (EUBS) for labour mobility in the EU. We find that the introduction of an EUBS, irrespective of whether it takes the form of a genuine scheme or an equivalent scheme, is unlikely to have a substantial impact on the magnitude of EU mobility. An EUBS might be introduced alongside certain features designed to stimulate labour mobility, such as an extension of exportability of unemployment benefits or closer cooperation with national employment agencies. While both will positively impact mobility, its effect is likely to be marginal in light of the low uptake of exportability and the lagged responsiveness of mobility to shocks. Overall we assert that an EUBS may marginally facilitate labour mobility if the system is geared to advance this objective, but not more."

"Societies and economies are experiencing deep and intertwined structural changes that may unsettle the perceptions European citizens have of their economic and employment security. Such labour-market perceptions are likely in turn to alter people's political positions. For instance, those worried by labour-market competition may prefer greater social protection to compensate for the accrued risk, or might prefer more closed economies where external borders provide protection (or the illusion of protection). We test these expectations with a conjoint experiment in 13 European countries on European-level social policy, studying how citizens' demands align with parties' political supply. Results broadly corroborate our expectations on the moderating effects of different types of concerns about perceived sources of labour-market competition on the features of preferred European-level social policy."

"European public opinion broadly favours ambitious measures to tackle global warming. This has been shown by observational data (European Commission, 2023) and seems to have been corroborated by the strong performances of Green parties in the 2018 European elections and in a number of national elections since.

However, European Union climate policies, being put in place as part of the green transition, are set to intrude more and more into the lives of Europeans 1 . For instance, the EU emissions trading system, which so far has impacted industrial production, will be extended in 2027 to heating and transportation, potentially broadening the parts of the population touched directly by climate policy. While the EU has ambitious goals, the policies to reach them are not yet fully developed, and therefore political pushback has been limited...."