Our Publications
Our publications include book publications, articles in peer-reviewed journals, articles in the media, reports and discussion papers.
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Industry with a future
This analysis of 62 industry sectors offers a roadmap for Germany’s industrial renewal
Intergenerational Fairness in Lithuania
From principle to practice towards a new model for governance in the European Union
MERGE – measuring what matters: Technical and data deep dives
This MERGE publication provides an overview of workshops on challenges for applying beyond GDP indicators
MERGE – measuring what matters: EU and UN policy engagement
A summary of work done to advance the integration of Sustainable and Inclusive Wellbeing into policy
Intergenerational Fairness in Ireland
From principle to practice towards a new model for governance in the European Union
The Intergenerational Governance Matrix
A framework to guide EU governments' efforts to institutionalise intergenerational fairness
Designing the European Competitiveness Fund for lasting impact
From cost-cutting to clean leadership: aligning the European Competitivenes Fund with Europe’s clean transition
A better response to energy price spikes
From emergency support to investments in green energy sovereignty
Data harmonisation and collection for wellbeing and sustainability indicators
This MERGE publication brings forward the perspective of national statistical institutes.
Rethinking public policy through an intersectional lens
How intersectional justice can guide EU policymaking toward fairness and equity
Strategic use of European Preference Criteria
A framework for supporting EU prosperity and social cohesion with 'Made in EU' criteria
The Competitiveness Coordination Tool
This paper outlines what the CCT could look like to ensure the best possible outcomes
Country brief: Unlocking private capital for Germany’s heating transition
A stakeholder- and technology-specific approach to overcoming investment barriers
Unlocking private finance for industrial electrification
A regional and technology-specific approach to overcoming investment barriers
Progress Over Promises
Rethinking direct public support: the Progress-Dependent Principle (PDP)
Framing Competitiveness
Research-based recommendations for communicating at the EU level
Standing Citizen Panels
A proposal for a new citizenship participation method for evidence-informed policymaking in the EU
Policy toolbox: Helping policymakers mobilise and redirect private finance for the green transition
How can we mobilise and redirect green finance at the scale necessary to drive meaningful change?
Intergenerational Fairness in the EU: a path forward
Input to the five-year mandate of the Commissioner for Intergenerational Fairness, and their cornerstone Strategy
Briefing: A single rulebook for EU funds?
Tensions and trade-offs around reform of the EU funding architecture 2028-34
Evidence-informed policymaking
Impact Assessments recommendations to ensure these account for long-term, cross-cutting effects and adapt in crises
A unified industrial strategy for the EU
Industrial policy recommendations to promote decarbonisation, competitiveness and cohesion in Europe
A Survey Report on the Perceptions on Beyond-GDP Approach
Findings of a survey and interview data collected by the MERGE project
A Synthesis of Models, Metrics, and Policies for a Sustainable and Inclusive Wellbeing Future?
Summary and review of the linkages between indicators, models, sustainability goals, and policies
Untapping regional potential: the key to a Europe-wide industrial modernisation
Four key reasons why a unified approach is essential for Europe’s long-term competitiveness
Are Beyond-GDP metrics converging?
Consolidation of the measurement of sustainable and inclusive wellbeing
An Executive Vice President for Future Generations – role portfolio
Detailed proposals for a new Executive Vice President to embed long-term thinking
A European agenda to navigate uncertain times
How to steer the EU towards wellbeing for all, now and in the future
A Unified Industrial Transition for Europe (UnITE) Pact
An EU-level industrial policy approach to ensure long-term competitiveness
Future-proof policymaking
How to adjust the policymaking process based on co-creative processes with policymakers
Advancing Energy Security
Six measures to mobilize private capital for reducing fossil gas dependence
Building a New European Competitiveness Deal
Six tests for a future-fit European Competitiveness Deal that benefits Europe’s citizens and businesses
A policy cycle 2.0 for the European Commission
Rethinking the EU policy cycle to ensure it combines future-fitness with present reaction speed
An EU Blueprint for Basic Services
Our proposal for an EU blueprint for basic services that takes the European Pillar of Social Rights to the next level
The history of caring for Future Generations
This timeline plots the history of caring for future generations, since ancient times to the present day.
Tilting the Scale
Re-directing public policy away from economic growth towards sustainable and inclusive wellbeing
Building back better?
Assessing the EU's economic resilience in the era of the Recovery & Resilience Facility
A proposal for an Executive Vice-President for Future Generations
Our priorities for a new Commissioner to embed long-term thinking
Security-orientated energy policy
The ZOE-hosted Energy Independence Council published a strategy for financing Germany's shift from natural gas
More quality of life, less consumption
How can the German Federal Environment Agency promote sufficiency policy?
A review of macroeconomic approaches to modelling Wellbeing, Inclusion, and Sustainability
Evaluating their theoretical and methodological strengths and weaknesses
Our vision for a wellbeing economy in the EU: A discussion paper by the EU Wellbeing Economy Coalition
A discussion paper by EU Wellbeing Economy Coalition for policymakers
By Disaster or by Design?
Lessons from REPowerEU for crisis management policymaking processes
EU Wellbeing Economy Coalition: Vision statement
A vision for an economic system focused on meeting the fundamental needs and rights of all
Linking EU fiscal rules to climate targets
A proposal for a climate-linked extension of budgetary adjustment paths
Enabling the green and just transition
A framework for policy processes equipped to manage tensions and trade-offs
Sustainability-linked Fiscal Leeway
A proposal to make the granting of fiscal leeway dependent on the achievement of green targets
Mainstreaming wellbeing and sustainability in policymaking
Technical and governance levers out of the institutional GDP lock-in
Applying Economic Resilience to Fiscal Policy
How fiscal policy can help increasing the EU's economic resilience
The Economic Resilience Index
Assessing the ability of EU economies to thrive in times of change
Systemic transformation or status quo?
Potential systemic transformation assessment of EU Member States' energy and mobility sectors through NRRPs
A framework for economic resilience
Guiding economic policy through a social-ecological transition
How to Talk with Policymakers About 1.5-Degree Lifestyles
Developing a toolkit for communicating 1.5-degree lifestyles
New Fiscal Rules for the EU
Assessing the EU's economic governance framework reform possibilities
Building Our Common Future
Future prospects for the Network of Institutions for Future Generations (NIFG)
Trade-off or tension: Can carbon be priced without risking economic competitiveness?
ZOE Discussion Paper No. 9
Ensuring the Significance of "Do No Significant Harm"
Shortfalls of the DNSH principle and recommendations for improvement
Defining resilience in economic policymaking
Origins and current uses
Updating the EU’s fiscal rules (Part 2)
Steering EU fiscal policy with an expenditure rule beyond GDP
Updating the EU’s fiscal rules (Part 1)
How improving the EU’s potential output methodology can mitigate the risk of deepening recessions
Demand-side solutions to address energy shortages
How the EU and Member States can boost energy savings through effective, socially balanced policy measures
International Examples of a Wellbeing Approach in Practice
A case study of wellbeing policies for the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management in the Netherlands
Reducing Emissions through Equitable 1.5 Degree Lifestyles
An Essential Plank in Bridging the Emissions Gap
Financing for a future-fit Europe
Feasible and impactful proposals for a reform of the EU fiscal framework
Executive summary: A compass towards 2030
Executive summary of the report
A compass towards 2030
A proposal for an overarching beyond GDP monitoring framework for the EU
Inventory of EU indicators
An inventory of over 450 indicators from 18 different policy processes in the EU
Fiscal Policy for a Thriving Europe
An analysis of the feasibility and impact of proposals for reforming fiscal policy in the EU
Methodology of the RITC
A methodology for assessing systemic change towards future-fit economies
A future-fit recovery?
A sectoral analysis of practices for promoting systemic change in the NRRPs
8th Cohesion Report: Economic Convergence within the EU
Feedback on the Roadmap for the 8th Cohesion Report
A coherent Green Deal
Five steps to co-create policy coherence
1.5 Degree Policy Mix
Introducing sufficiency as a complementary strategy for achieving climate neutrality in the EU
Systemic change for a resilient Europe
Sustainable transformation through the NRRPs
Towards a Resilience Doughnut
Recommendations for operationalising and mainstreaming resilience
Free days for future
The case for a simple yet astonishingly beneficial policy
Making welfare resilient
Given that economic growth is no longer a sustainable solution for the challenges faced by the welfare state alternatives are explained applied to the Green Deal and the Just Transition.
Land value taxation
How to ease housing markets, reduce land prices and support spatial and urban planning - at once.
Building a Resilient Economy
Analysing options for systemic change to transform the world’s economic and financial systems after the pandemic.
The Emergence of Core-Periphery Structures in the European Union: a Complexity Perspective
Polarization trends in the EU since the 1960s and their implications for policy.
Growth imperatives: Substantiating a contested concept
An offer you can’t refuse – Enhancing personal productivity through ‘efficiency consumption’
Personal productivity (efficiency) is a relevant consumption motive.
Growth, Prosperity and the environment
How can ecological and social indicators be better integrated into macroeconomic models?
Inequality dynamics, (unmet) aspirations and social protest
The link between social protest and economic or social inequalities
Decoupling debunked
Warum die Konzentration auf Ökoeffizienz nicht ausreicht, um dem Klimawandel zu begegnen
The contested concept of growth imperatives: Technology and the fear of stagnation
Do ‘growth imperatives’ exist that make ‘growth policies’ ‘inescapable’?
An offer you can’t refuse
Do firms and consumers both frequently acquire goods that increase their efficiency?
Growth Miracle or Endangered Development?
Analysis and discussion of reasons for sustained growth rates in Dominican Republic
Growth imperatives: Resource use and accumulation as distortions
Analysis of growth imperatives and new policies to deal with technological progress
Fear of stagnation? A review on growth imperatives
Review of potential social and economic growth imperatives
Consistency and stability analysis of models of a monetary growth imperative
Discussion and analysis of growth imperatives in the current monetary system
How imperative are the Joneses?
Definition of growth imperatives & classification of socio-cultural mechanisms
Efficiency Consumption
Theoretical justification and discussion of "efficiency consumption" as a measure of income securing
Publication series: Policy Pathways towards 1.5-Degree Lifestyles
Policy briefs exploring how future-fit policy pathways for Europe can be created to meet the 1.5 degree scenario in the areas of food, mobility and housing.