As the Draghi report shows, Europe needs to undergo a fundamental transformation in order to escape its 'mid-technology trap'. Mainstream economic theory offers little guidance on how to achieve this. A critical review of neoclassical growth theory shows that in these models, growth and innovation are gradual, risk-free processes driven by individual agents, providing no rationale for the active involvement of entrepreneurs, bankers, or the government. Consequently, traditional supply-side policies advocate a strategy in which the government is perceived as the problem rather than the solution. This paper presents a New Schumpeterian Growth Theory (NSGT) based on Josef Schumpeter's key insights. Key elements of the NSGT include the crucial importance of the financial sector as a financier of growth, the element of risk and uncertainty in the innovation process, the disruptive nature of innovation and growth, and the impact of growth on inflation. While Schumpeter ascribed a key role to 'the banker' in selecting promising innovation projects, the experience of many Asian countries shows that the state can also fulfil this function successfully. For Europe, this implies that the way out of the mid-technology trap is not to reduce the role of the state, but rather to increase it through a comprehensive industrial policy strategy.

This study investigated the extent of currency competition within the cryptocurrency market through the Hayek’s concept of the denationalization of money. Hayek’s original analysis primarily centered on competition revolving around the medium of the exchange function. This study posited that cryptocurrencies compete across diverse monetary functions, particularly concerning their roles as speculative stores of value and exchange media. This assertion provided insight into the distinction between Hayek’s envisaged private currencies and the cryptocurrency paradigm. Utilizing an extensive dataset encompassing 101 cryptocurrencies spanning from 2016 to 2022, an empirical exploration was conducted to scrutinize the progression and intensity of competition within the broader cryptocurrency market and its submarkets. These findings reveal a robust competition among unpegged cryptocurrencies, predominantly contending for speculative investment purposes. Similarly, there is pronounced competition among stablecoins as stable stores of value. In contrast, competition is much less pronounced concerning the medium of the exchange function, potentially entailing network effects and the emergence of monopolistic tendencies within this specific submarket.

The nexus between the financial system and economic development is an issue that is as important for economic theory as it is for economic policy. This article provides a theoretical and empirical analysis of the standard literature that uses Joseph A. Schumpeter as an academic patron. The starting point of our study is the theoretical finding that Schumpeter is misinterpreted in the finance and growth literature. We show that this leads to puzzling empirical results and difficulties in explaining even fundamental relationships. After a critical analysis of the literature, we provide our own empirical analysis using a panel of 43 countries to explore the relationships between finance and growth variables based on a truly Schumpeterian and thus monetary growth model. Our empirical analysis shows that (i) dynamic credit variables are better at describing the finance and growth nexus than static credit variables, (ii) as saving is not a prerequisite for credit, we do not find a statistically significant relationship between household saving and gross domestic product (GDP) growth, and (iii) in line with the empirical literature, we find a bi-directional relationship between credit and GDP growth.

Zusammenfassung Der Preis der Schwedischen Reichsbank für Wirtschaftswissenschaften im Gedenken an Alfred Nobel geht an Ben Bernanke, Douglas Diamond und Philip Dybvig. Nach Ansicht der Königlich Schwedischen Akademie der Wissenschaften haben die Preisträger „unser Verständnis der Rolle der Banken in der Wirtschaft erheblich verbessert“. Doch da irren sie.

Abstract The ECB has embarked on an uncertain path with the digital euro project. It is pursuing a strategy that is unclear about what problems it is trying to solve and what specific goals it is trying to achieve. The ECB has not yet been able to diagnose a clear market failure that would justify such far-reaching government intervention. The attempt to claim the need for a “monetary anchor” instead is not very convincing. The current design is unlikely to attract much interest from citizens and thus will not contribute to greater European strategic autonomy in the payment system. This requires a solution that does not rely on system-specific balances and is therefore more convenient, while simultaneously avoiding impending risks to the financial system.

The purpose of this paper is to show that Schumpeter can offer important insights for macroeconomic theory today. This applies especially to his distinction between a “real analysis” and a “monetary analysis,” as he calls it, and its implications for monetary macroeconomics, especially the theories of financial crises at the national and the global levels. The main problem of the “real analysis” is the identity of the financial sphere with the real sphere. The consequence of this narrow view is the inability to understand the dynamics of a monetary economy, which is the main cause for financial crises. The flaws of the real analysis manifest themselves also at the global level. The Feldstein–Horioka puzzle and the Lucas paradox are obvious “anomalies” of this paradigm. Models based on the real analysis are unable to explain the extent and even direction of international capital flows. Thus, the economics profession was unable to see the risks that were accumulating in the international financial system before the outbreak of the Great Financial Crisis.

Zusammenfassung Der Preis der Schwedischen Reichsbank für Wirtschaftswissenschaften im Gedenken an Alfred Nobel geht an Ben Bernanke, Douglas Diamond und Philip Dybvig. Nach Ansicht der Königlich Schwedischen Akademie der Wissenschaften haben die Preisträger „unser Verständnis der Rolle der Banken in der Wirtschaft erheblich verbessert“. Doch da irren sie.

A revision of the European Central Bank's (ECB) strategy is urgently needed. For the new strategy, it is important to define the inflation target explicitly in symmetrical terms. Environmental policy objectives can in principle be reconciled with the ECB's mandate as long as they do not conflict with the objective of monetary stability. An essential element of any strategy is a heuristic that makes it relatively easy for the public to monitor whether monetary policy decisions are in line with the mandate. Among the possible heuristics, monetary targeting and the Taylor rule have to be ruled out while ‘inflation targeting’ offers a relatively simple navigation system for monetary policy discussions.

Keynesian economics is not dead. Instead, it is in a similar condition to Sleeping Beauty after she pricked her finger on the spindle. A large hedge of thorns has been laid over the original Keynesian building so that it is hardly recognizable today. Keynesian economics has suffered from a failure to sufficiently identify the core of the Keynesian revolution. This paper argues that the core concerns the distinction between real and monetary exchange economies, and that a proper understanding of money's role requires identifying the mechanisms of the financial system. Doing so reveals the fundamental incompatibility between real and monetary analysis.

The corona crisis started in China and had great consequences for public health and the economy. In the meantime, high and rapidly growing numbers of cases of infections with SARS-CoV-2 have also been recorded in Japan, Korea, Italy, Germany, Great Britain, France, Spain and above all in the USA. Forecasts of economic growth have been massively revised downwards and governments around the world are struggling to find the right economic policy response. This article describes basic short-term options for the German government to react to the corona shock and briefl y assesses the package of measures “Schutzschirm für Beschäftigte und Unternehmen” presented on 13 March 2020 by the German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz and the German Economics Minister Peter Altmaier.

The ECB is discussing how to raise its inflation target slightly to 2 %, just as the US Federal Reserve is raising it slightly and aiming to achieve it over several years on average. In reality, however, the inflation rate is well below 2 % despite the very relaxed monetary policy. Will the measures against the corona crisis increase the inflation rate? This did not happen during the financial crisis despite the increase in the money supply. Even current economic developments do not explain the high price increases. So what rate should be measured as an indicator of true inflation? Should asset prices be taken into account? What about the GDP deflator, or the consumer price index? How should a hedonic quality adjustment be assessed? These are the questions that Zeitgesprach participants will discuss.

In this study, we provide a systemic perspective on central bank digital currencies (CBDC). We separate existing proposals for CBDCs into the perspective of new payment objects, made available by central banks to a broader public, and new payment systems, operated by central banks. From a systemic perspective, CBDC proposals need to be examined to see how they would fit into the existing ecosystem of national, supra-regional, and international payment systems. To analyze the main implications of introducing CBDCs, we provide a price-theoretical banking model, which allows private non-banks to switch between holding bank deposits and CBDCs. In addition to the CBDC payment objects, we also present the option of a store-of-value CBDC. While most CBDC proposals incorporate new payment objects with new or existing payment systems, we discuss whether central banks could establish new payment systems without offering a new payment object.

Auf dem Höhepunkt der Finanzkrise vor zehn Jahren wurde die Schuldenbremse eingeführt. Seither haben sich die öffentlichen Haushalte deutlich erholt — wohl überwiegend nicht aufgrund der Schuldenbremse. Vielmehr haben der lang anhaltende Aufschwung und dauerhaft niedrige Zinsen zu einem Rückgang der Defizit- und Schuldenquote geführt. Heute steht die Schuldenbremse wieder in der Kritik: Die Defizitgrenze reduziere die Staatsverschuldung auf einen zu niedrigen Wert. Eine niedrige Verschuldungsquote wäre nicht sinnvoll, wenn der Zins für Staatsanleihen langfristig unter der Wachstumrate des nominalen Bruttoinlandsprodukts liegt. Zudem würde eine höhere Verschuldung das Angebot an sicheren öffentlichen Schuldtiteln und damit das Finanzsystem stabilisieren. Außerdem wird befürchtet, dass die Begrenzung des Defizits Anreize für Politiker setzt, weniger in langfristige Projekte zu investieren. Nicht zuletzt beschneide die Schuldenbremse die Möglichkeit, bei einem konjunkturellen Abschwung zu reagieren. Relativ einfach ließe sich die Kritik auffangen, wenn strukturelle Neuverschuldung in Höhe der Investitionen zugelassen würde (goldene Regel).