Center for Social and Economic Research

The Center for Social and Economic Research (CASE) is the top-ranked economics think tank in Central Europe. Established in Warsaw in 1991 by a group of economists to help guide the transition process in post-Communist countries, CASE is now an internationally renowned organization drawing on the talents of prominent economists from around the world. Since 1991 the organization has concluded over 350 projects in 50 countries on 5 continents. After a quarter-century, CASE continues to contribute to policy debates facing Europe on crucial issues of the day. CASE focuses on key economic and social challenges facing countries around the world, with a particular focus on Europe. CASE's core thematic areas include (1) European Neighbourhood Policy, enlargement, trade and economic integration, (2) labour markets, human capital and social policy, (3) innovation, competitiveness and entrepreneurship, (4) reforms, growth and poverty reduction in developing and transition countries, and (5) macroeconomics and public finance.

October 25, 2021

showCASE No. 122: The Conference on the Future of Europe: a Long-awaited Democratic Experiment or a Political Spin?

For years the European Union (EU) has been criticised for its alleged democratic deficit. Typical allegations in this respect are, among other, related to the dispossession of national authorities that is not sufficiently compensated for at the EU level; too much power for the EU’s executive brunch – European Commission (EC) – whose top officers nor the political leadership in the cabinet are elected in democratic elections and are not dependent and accountable to EU’s citizens; as well as inadequate level of parliamentary control over decision-making processes.

July 27, 2021

ShowCASE: Trade, Innovation, and Productivity

According to the latest European Commission forecasts published on July 7, the EU economy will return to its pre-pandemic level in the last quarter of 2021 or one quarter earlier than expected in the previous forecast. This shows an expected higher EU economic growth compared to the spring projections.

June 25, 2021

Euromed Survey Results | Digital Transformation in the Southern Neighbourhood

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, what with the lockdowns and travel bans, has manifested in no uncertain terms the significance of digitalisation processes. While the digital transformation of economies has been recognised as one of the cornerstones of sustainable development for some time now, it was only last year when its importance for day-to-day functioning of societies became quite so obvious.

March 10, 2021

Thinking Beyond the Pandemic: Monetary Policy Challenges in the Medium- to Long-Term

The economic characteristics of the COVID-19 crisis differ from those of previous crises. It is a combination of demand-and supply-side constraints which led to the formation of a monetary overhang that will be unfrozen once the pandemic ends.

January 28, 2021

Why We Still Need Free Trade and Globalization

The increasingly tense interplay between trade and politics should not blind us to the fact that the postwar liberalization of trade worldwide has been a resounding success and remains one of globalism’s most significant achievements, if not the most important achievement, period. This opening up did not happen spontaneously in an institutional vacuum. Instead, the current degree of economic openness and the resulting prosperity are results of a combination of multilateral trade negotiations under the auspices of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and later the World Trade Organization (WTO), underwritten largely by the United States, as well as a variety of regional initiatives.

October 15, 2020

Digital Entrepreneurship for Employability Paths

The report, representing the Intellectual Output 2 "Mapping and Stocktaking of Digital Entrepreneurship Dynamics", reviews the state of the art in the field of Digital Entrepreneurship in Europe with a specific focus on the countries of the partner organizations (Bulgaria, Italy, Poland, Portugal, and Spain).

September 18, 2020

Is the economy doomed to a long recession?

Forecasting during a strong shock is burdened with exceptionally high uncertainty. This gives rise to the temptation to formulate alarmist forecasts. Experiences from earlier pandemics, particularly those from the 20th century, for which we have the most data, don’t provide a basis for this. The mildest of them weakened growth by less than 1 percentage point, and the worst, the Spanish Flu, by 6 percentage points. Still, even the Spanish Flu never caused losses on the order of 20% of GDP – not even where it turned out to be a humanitarian disaster, costing the lives of 3-5% of the population. History suggests that if pandemics lead to such deep losses at all, it’s only in particular quarters and not over a whole year, as economic activity rebounds. The strength of that rebound is largely determined by economic policy. The purpose of this work is to describe possible scenarios for a rebound in Polish economic growth after the epidemic.

September 16, 2020

Digitalization of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the Mediterranean

Micro, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) are the spine of Euro-Mediterranean economies. In the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean (SEMED) countries, they account for over 90-95% of all firms in absolute figures (OECD, 2018; IMF, 2019), of which the majority are micro-enterprises (e.g. in Tunisia, micro-enterprises represent 98% of all firms [World Bank, 2014]). Notwithstanding their contribution to private sector development, their role in job creation and upward mobility is much more limited.

September 16, 2020

Study and Reports on the VAT Gap in the EU-28 Member States. 2020 Final Report

This Report has been prepared for the European Commission, DG TAXUD, for the project TAXUD/2019/AO-14, “Study and Reports on the VAT Gap in the EU-28 Member States”, and is a follow-up to the seven reports published between 2013 and 2019.

August 20, 2020

Increasing the International Role of the Euro: A Long Way to Go

The euro is the second most important global currency after the US dollar. However, its international role has not increased since its inception in 1999. The private sector prefers using the US dollar rather than the euro because the financial market for US dollar-denominated assets is larger and deeper; network externalities and inertia also play a role. Increasing the attractiveness of the euro outside the euro area requires, among others, a proactive role for the European Central Bank and completing the Banking Union and Capital Market Union.

Pages