Institutional research & analysis

Source: VoxEU

RESEARCH

Research ColumnMay 31, 2026

From European public goods to a European safe asset: A pragmatic roadmap

The search for a European safe asset has generated no shortage of proposals, but these proposals require, from the outset, a degree of mutual trust that European countries have not yet achieved. This column sketches a political-economy roadmap which starts from what is politically feasible today, and from there builds a conditional path towards a European safe asset, without losing sight of the long-term perspective.

VoxEU1 min read

Research ColumnMay 31, 2026

Europe suffers not so much from a ‘flight’ of savings as from insufficient allocation to equities

Europe exports a large surplus of savings outside the continent each year. This column argues that this should not be interpreted as a capital ‘flight’: European financial investment remains marked by a strong ‘home bias’, and portfolio equity flows are actually net inward. However, Europe’s primary problem is the insufficient development of equity savings, with European capital markets that are too narrow and fragmented. This results in scarcer and more expensive equity financing, weighing o...

VoxEU1 min read