Richard Baldwin image

Richard Baldwin

6 Votes

The Graduate Institute Geneva

  • Geneva, Switzerland

About

  • Professor of International Economics
  • President, Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), London (June 2016 – present)
  • Council of the European Economic Association (1999-2004; 2006-11)
  • Senior Staff Economist, President’s Council of Economic Advisors (1990-91)

Voting History

Europe

Refugees in Germany

The influx of refugees into Germany beginning in the summer of 2015 will generate net economic benefits for German citizens over the succeeding decade.
Vote Confidence Median Survey Vote Median Survey Confidence
Did Not Answer
Uncertain
6
Question A: Holding labor market institutions and job training fixed, rising use of robots and artificial intelligence is likely to increase substantially the number of workers in advanced countries who are unemployed for long periods.
Vote Confidence Median Survey Vote Median Survey Confidence
Did Not Answer
Uncertain
6
Question B: Rising use of robots and artificial intelligence in advanced countries is likely to create benefits large enough that they could be used to compensate those workers who are substantially negatively affected for their lost wages.
Vote Confidence Median Survey Vote Median Survey Confidence
Did Not Answer
Agree
6
Europe

Ride Sharing

Question A: Consumers will be better off, on balance, if European cities treat firms that provide ride-sharing platforms (such as Uber) as substantively different from taxi firms, and thus not necessarily warranting the same regulation.
Vote Confidence Median Survey Vote Median Survey Confidence
Did Not Answer
Uncertain
6
Question B: Assuming that taxi and ride-sharing companies were treated as substantively similar — including requirements that they operate on an equal footing regarding safety, insurance and taxation — letting ride-sharing services compete without restrictions on prices or routes would raise consumer welfare.
Vote Confidence Median Survey Vote Median Survey Confidence
Did Not Answer
Agree
7
Question C: Regardless of how ride-sharing services are treated, existing regulations for traditional taxi firms in many European cities harm consumers by limiting competition.
Vote Confidence Median Survey Vote Median Survey Confidence
Did Not Answer
Agree
7
Question A: Revising France’s labor market policies — by reducing employment protection, decentralizing labor negotiations to the firm level, and making training programs more accessible and responsive to labor demands — would, all else equal, increase productivity in France’s economy.
Vote Confidence Median Survey Vote Median Survey Confidence
Did Not Answer
Agree
7
Question B: Reducing employment protection would reduce the equilibrium unemployment rate in France.
Vote Confidence Median Survey Vote Median Survey Confidence
Did Not Answer
Agree
7
Europe

ECB Asset Purchases

Question A: The ECB's asset purchases over the past two years have reduced the threat of deflation in the euro area as a whole.
Vote Confidence Median Survey Vote Median Survey Confidence
Did Not Answer
Agree
7
Question B: If the economic outlook in the euro area becomes less favorable, then increasing the ECB's asset purchase program (in size or duration) would substantially increase the euro area's economic growth over the following five years.
Vote Confidence Median Survey Vote Median Survey Confidence
Did Not Answer
Uncertain
6
Europe

Diversified Investing

In general, absent any inside information, an equity investor can expect to do better by holding a well-diversified, low-fee, passive index fund than by holding a few stocks.
Vote Confidence Median Survey Vote Median Survey Confidence
Did Not Answer
Strongly Agree
9
Europe

Aging

Question A: Without changes in policy, a rising share of people who are over age 65 will exert a substantial downward influence on per capita real GDP in western European countries.
Vote Confidence Median Survey Vote Median Survey Confidence
Did Not Answer
Agree
7
Question B: In European countries where the share of those over 65 is rising, there are net social benefits to adjusting retirement ages for state-financed (including pay-as-you-go) pension systems upwards, so that revised retirement ages better reflect longer life expectancies.
Vote Confidence Median Survey Vote Median Survey Confidence
Did Not Answer
Agree
8
Europe

City of London

Question A: All else equal, there are substantial advantages to having much of Europe’s human capital and infrastructure for international financial activity clustered in a single city, as they are at present in London.
Vote Confidence Median Survey Vote Median Survey Confidence
Did Not Answer
Agree
7
Question B: All else equal, Britain’s rules on hiring, firing and working hours are significantly more conducive to financial activity than those in other large European countries.
Vote Confidence Median Survey Vote Median Survey Confidence
Did Not Answer
Agree
7
Europe

Italy’s Banks

Question A: Setting the EU rules aside, and assuming it would take 2.5% of Italy’s GDP to recapitalize its banks, the Italian government would improve financial stability in Europe if it injected this amount of public funds into its banks.
Vote Confidence Median Survey Vote Median Survey Confidence
Agree
5
Agree
7
Question B: If Italy were to inject public funds into its banks without imposing losses on at least some claimants, an important cost would be the effect on future incentives (economic or political) in Europe.
Vote Confidence Median Survey Vote Median Survey Confidence
Agree
5
Agree
8
Europe

Brexit

Question A: Because of the Brexit vote's outcome, the UK's real per-capita income level is likely to be lower a decade from now than it would have been otherwise.
Vote Confidence Median Survey Vote Median Survey Confidence
Strongly Agree
10
Agree
8
Comment: it will disrupt Factory Europe and UK's role in it; to restore UK competitivenes, UK wages must fall relative to those of its EU competittor
Question B: Because of the Brexit vote's outcome, the rest of the EU's real per-capita income level is likely to be lower a decade from now than it would have been otherwise.
Vote Confidence Median Survey Vote Median Survey Confidence
Disagree
10
Agree
7
Comment: UK is a only a small part of Factory Europe and political reactions are likely to shield most critical parts.
Europe

Congestion Pricing

In general, using more congestion charges in crowded transportation networks — such as higher tolls during peak travel times in cities, and peak fees for airplane takeoff and landing slots — and using the proceeds to lower other taxes would make citizens on average better off.
Vote Confidence Median Survey Vote Median Survey Confidence
Did Not Answer
Strongly Agree
8
On the whole, the shift from state to private ownership of many industrial assets in central and eastern European countries after communism has increased productivity in those countries.
Vote Confidence Median Survey Vote Median Survey Confidence
Agree
5
Strongly Agree
8
Europe

Trade Within Europe

Question A: Freer movement of goods and services across borders within Europe has made the average western European citizen better off since the 1980s.
Vote Confidence Median Survey Vote Median Survey Confidence
Strongly Agree
10
Strongly Agree
8
Comment: Author of leading textbook on Econ of European integration
-see background information here
Question B: Freer movement of goods and services across borders within Europe has made many low-skilled western European citizens worse off since the 1980s.
Vote Confidence Median Survey Vote Median Survey Confidence
Strongly Disagree
10
Disagree
7
Europe

Local Tax Incentives

Question A: Giving tax incentives to specific firms to locate operations in a country typically generates domestic benefits that outweigh the costs to the country providing the incentives.
Vote Confidence Median Survey Vote Median Survey Confidence
Disagree
5
Uncertain
6
Question B: Europe as a whole benefits when European cities or countries compete with each other by giving tax incentives to firms to locate operations in their jurisdictions.
Vote Confidence Median Survey Vote Median Survey Confidence
Uncertain
1
Disagree
7
Europe

Migration Within Europe

Question A: Freer movement of people to live and work across borders within Europe has made the average western European citizen better off since the 1980s.
Vote Confidence Median Survey Vote Median Survey Confidence
Strongly Agree
10
Agree
8
Question B: Freer movement of people to live and work across borders within Europe has made many low-skilled western European citizens worse off since the 1980s.
Vote Confidence Median Survey Vote Median Survey Confidence
Strongly Disagree
10
Disagree
6