luis de guindos : gabriel zucman ’ s contribution to research on wealth inequality and the redistributive effects on globalization remarks by luis de guindos, vice - president of the european central bank, on the occasion of the award of the bernacer prize to professor gabriel zucman, madrid, 11 october 2019. * * * it is a pleasure for me to celebrate with you the award of the 2019 bernacer prize to gabriel zucman, assistant professor of economics at the university of california, berkeley. gabriel ’ s creative work on measuring household wealth over time and across countries and his studies on the effects of taxation and globalisation on the accumulation of wealth have become increasingly influential among academic economists and policymakers. he is a deserved recipient of the bernacer prize, which is awarded each year to an outstanding young european economist working in the fields of macroeconomics and finance. this year ’ s prize has been awarded specifically for gabriel ’ s “ influential research on wealth inequality and the redistributive effects of globalisation ”. gabriel, together with his co - authors thomas piketty and emmanuel saez, has been one of the pioneers in this field, showing us how to use various data sources – aggregate sectoral accounts, household surveys, fiscal data, historical administrative data and unofficial records – to estimate the evolution and determinants of the wealth distribution over centuries. such a long time range is important, as many of the movements in wealth inequality are very gradual, which means that these changes can only be estimated reliably once enough data are available. at the same time, retrieving historical information on wealth poses multiple challenges. first, data on household wealth are much scarcer than, say, data on household income. second, the wealth distribution is heavily skewed toward its top tail, such that relatively few households hold a large fraction of aggregate wealth in the economy. consequently, to be able to measure wealth inequality, it is important that we include information about the very richest households. third, and especially for the richest households, one should account for all assets, including those held abroad, which tend to be more difficult to trace. a key approach used by gabriel to overcome these challenges is the “ income capitalisation method ”, which uses fiscal data on capital income to estimate the wealth distribution. although not always easily accessible, fiscal data are available for several decades and also cover the richest households. the method is therefore useful in

mario draghi : building on the achievements of post - crisis reforms speech by mr mario draghi, president of the european central bank and chair of the european systemic risk board, at the second annual conference of the esrb, frankfurt am main, 21 september 2017. * * * it is my pleasure to welcome you to the second annual conference of the european systemic risk board ( esrb ). the conference coincides with the tenth anniversary of the start of the global financial crisis in the summer of 2007. the crisis shook the european union to the core, and required substantial policy actions to stabilise the economy and the financial system. with a return to stability having been achieved, it is important that we take time to reflect on what we have learnt, what we have achieved over the past ten years, and where we need to do further work. the crisis taught us that individual banks and the banking system as a whole needed to be more resilient than they were pre - crisis. as a result, many reforms have been put in place in recent years. our banking regulation and supervision have become stricter. moreover, the european regulatory framework now places greater emphasis on identifying and addressing system - wide risks. this includes the establishment of the esrb and the creation of macroprudential instruments assigned to public authorities. a more resilient post - crisis banking sector in the banking sector, significant efforts have been made in recent years to increase resilience. in the euro area, for example, the average common equity tier 1 ratio of significant institutions rose from 7 % in 2008 to 13. 5 % by end - 2016. and banks are required to set up solid governance structures and prudent risk management practices. moreover, resilience is now tested more rigorously in a forward - looking manner. the eu - wide stress tests coordinated by the european banking authority ( eba ) have become an important tool for quantifying banks ’ capital needs, with a view to ensuring that they would be able to continue lending to creditworthy borrowers even during a severe recession. 1, 2 post - crisis prudential rules have also provided public authorities with macroprudential tools to address systemic risks in the banking sector. 3 and the understanding of how to calibrate and implement these tools has advanced. for example, all member states now have a countercyclical capital buffer framework that is fully operational. 4 four member states have announced a non - zero buffer rate for domestic exposure