Review of "Protectionism and blocking power indices" by Francesc Carreras

A separating family

Most of the voting power literature has focussed on the ability to make or change decisions. This is surprising given the way the voting rules  in many of the well-known applications, such as the European Union Council of Ministers have been designed. Indeed the attention has been more on how to prevent change rather than how to foster it. This paper is an exception.

Lisbon prospects

Decision making in the European Union has always been an interesting if not controversial topic. The top decision making body, the Council of Ministers consists of a single representative of each member state. When voting, the fact that member states are rather heterogeneous in size is taken into account by using weighted voting with a qualified majority. The Treaty of Lisbon, ratified late 2009 has introduced new voting rules effective from 2014. What are the effects of the reform? This is the topic of my most recent working paper.