‘How Europe is deciding about sustainability and the climate change’

Since the economic crisis of 2008, the current economic model has increasingly come under question, even though there is no obvious alternative at hand. Economists, therefore, are searching for signs that herald the next era: sustainability, a return to governmental intervention, the pursuit of happiness, etc. This autumn, the Istituto Italiano di Cultura will seek answers to these questions in the debate series Economics of the future: the deficit of choice. During the first debate in the series, Enrico Giovannini (via Skype) and Daniel Gros go into conversation.

Enrico Giovannini is an Italian economist and statistician, member of the Club of Rome. He is full professor at the University of Rome Tor Vergata. He is co-chair of the Independent Expert Advisory Group on the Data Revolution for Sustainable Development established by the Secretary-General of the United Nations. He has been Director of the OECD (2001 – 2009), President of the Italian Statistical Institute (2009-2013) and Minister of labour and social policies in the Italian government (2013-2014). He published several books: Scegliere il futuro. Conoscenza e politica al tempo dei Big Data (2014) and l’Utopia sostenibile (Laterza 2018).

Daniel Gros is director of the independent think tank CEPS. He is also adviser to the European Parliament and is a member of the Advisory Scientific Committee of the European Systemic Risk Board and the Euro 50 Group of eminent economists. He has held positions at the IMF and the European Commission, and served as advisor to several governments. He is Editor of Economie Internationale and International Finance. Daniel Gros holds a PhD in Economics and has written numerous book and peer-reviewed papers. His main areas of expertise are the European Monetary Union, macroeconomic policy, the economics of transition to a market economy, public finance, banking and financial markets.