Question 2: Do you agree that the different behaviour of UK real wages relative to Eurozone wages during the Great Recession is in large part due to the UK having different labour market policies?
I think the answer very much depends on countries characteristics, such as labor and goods market types, and the way in which the financial crisis has unfolded in each country.
Question 2: Do you agree that quantitative well-being analysis should play an important role in guiding policy makers in determining macroeconomic policies?
Given the difficulty of defining well-being and, most importantly, understanding what is the value of aggregate measures of well-being, I doubt that policy makers should base their choices on quantitative well-being analysis. The danger is that political choices (that should be selected through the democratic process) may be disguised as technical solutions.
Question 1: Do you agree that subjective well-being measures, or at least some of the subindices from the typical survey measures, are now reliable enough to give useful insights when used in macroeconomic empirical analysis?
My view is that these surveys are based on complex and heterogeneous criteria reflecting our own ethical, political value judgements as well as aspirations and transitory conditions. I am very skeptical about the meaning of an index derived from the aggregation across individuals of these type of evaluations.
Question 3: More generally, do you agree that it is desirable to maintain central bank independence? Again focus on the near future, say next 48 months.
I don't believe that central bank independence is important in any situation, institution and political environment. Less independence of US and UK central banks have not prevented low inflation and price stability, whereas increasing the central bank independence in Italy has produced significant benefits in the nineties. Within the EMU, I think that coordination between fiscal and monetary authorities would be important, even if this may undermine some independence of the ECB.
The CFM surveys informs the public about the views held by prominent economists based in Europe on important macroeconomic and public policy questions. Some surveys focus specifically on the UK economy (as the CFM is a UK research centre), but surveys can in principle focus on any macroeconomic question for any region. The surveys shed light on the extent to which there is agreement or disagreement among these experts. An important motivation for the survey is to give a more comprehensive overview of the beliefs held by economists and in particular to include the views of those economists whose opinions are not frequently heard in public debates.
Questions mainly focus on macroeconomic and public policy topics. Although there are some questions that focus specifically on the UK economy, the setup of the survey is much broader and considers questions related to other countries/regions and also considers questions not tied to a specific economy.
The surveys are done in collaboration with the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR).
Wages and economic recoveries
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Question 2: Do you agree that the different behaviour of UK real wages relative to Eurozone wages during the Great Recession is in large part due to the UK having different labour market policies?
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Question 1: Do you agree that lower real wage growth was beneficial for employment levels during the Great Recession?
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Happiness and well-being as objectives of macro policy
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Question 2: Do you agree that quantitative well-being analysis should play an important role in guiding policy makers in determining macroeconomic policies?
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Question 1: Do you agree that subjective well-being measures, or at least some of the subindices from the typical survey measures, are now reliable enough to give useful insights when used in macroeconomic empirical analysis?
The Future of Central Bank Independence
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Question 3: More generally, do you agree that it is desirable to maintain central bank independence? Again focus on the near future, say next 48 months.
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