Transnational Economists in the Eurozone Crisis: Professional Structures, Networks and Ideas

ABSTRACT

In recent years IPE and EU studies scholars have examined how actors in international organisations and EU institutions shape policy ideas. This article explores the professional structure of economists affiliated to two Brussels-based think tanks, Bruegel and CEPS, who, in the context of the Eurozone crisis, sought to contribute to the production of policy solutions to douse the flames of the crisis and put forward long term recommendations for the EMU’s stability. Through the analysis of more than 300 CVs and by drawing on network and sequence analysis, the article shows that in their search for solutions, Brussels-based think tanks bring together economists from different EU member states, whose authority draws on academic qualifications, experience, and seniority. They are ‘multiple insiders’ connected to a wide range of institutions and professional networks, who move back and forth between professional and organisational networks and serve as bridges between revisionist, orthodox, and mixed economic ideas.

KEYWORDS:

• Economists
• eurozone
• professional structures
• network
• sequence analysis

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Ramona Coman is Professor in Political Science at the Université libre de Bruxelles and President of the Institute for European Studies (ULB).

Notes

1 The 2017 Global Go To Think Thank Index Report ranked Bruegel second and the CEPS 17th in the Top International Economics Think Tanks. According to the same ranking, Bruegel occupied the 2nd position and the CEPS the 8th in the Top Think Thanks in Western Europe, being the first two European think tanks in a list of 124 based in Western Europe.

2 Among those who, within Bruegel and the CEPS, contributed to the study on how to strengthen the eurozone in the context of its crisis, only 14% were directly affiliated to Bruegel and 16% to CEPS as members of staff.

3 For example, in 2014, Laurence Boone (Bruegel) was appointed to replace Emmanuel Macron as economic and financial adviser to the President of the French President, François Hollande. Jacques Delpla (Bruegel), who studied at the Ecole Normale Supérieure and in the US at Harvard under the supervision of Jeffrey Sachs (where he examined the transition to a market economy in Central and Eastern Europe), served as economic advisor to the Russian Government (1992–94) and as adviser to Nicolas Sarkozy in 2004.