WWWforEurope Lecture Series: A Basic European Unemployment Insurance

A basic European unemployment insurance scheme would provide a limited and predictable short-term fiscal stimulus to economies undergoing a downturn in the economic cycle – something that every country is going to experience sooner or later. With its automatic and countercyclical character, a basic European unemployment insurance scheme could boost market confidence in the EMU and thus help to avoid repeating vicious circles of downgrades, austerity and internal devaluation in the eurozone. It would help to uphold domestic demand and therefore economic growth in Europe as a whole. (Place: Vienna University of Economics, Teaching Center, Room 1.01 (OeNB), Welthandelsplatz 1, 1020 Vienna)