Policy Briefs

C. Bastasin: GERMAN INVESTORS RESHAPING EUROPE

Accumulating further current account surpluses, the German industry will be able to shape the Euro- area productions according to its interest and likeliness. On one hand this may be very useful in bringing homogeneity in the currency area, but on the other hand it might carry substantial risks of building a hardly acceptable political asymmetry between Germany and its partners. The risk of indirect political dominance needs to be mitigated by some degree of common industrial governance: primarily equalizing financing costs across the euro area and investing in better human capital in the periphery.

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