Economics of European Integration

Catalog description

Aim of the Course is to offer a wide perspective on the main economic issues concerning the European economy. We will discuss the characteristics of the role of EU and the EU monetary union that comes from a long period of economic coordination in a globalized context. We will focus on the role of EU and main international institutions on the recent financial turmoil. The financial crisis that hit the global economy since the summer of 2008 is without precedent in post-war economic history. Although its size and extent are exceptional, the crisis has many features in common with similar financial-stress driven recession episodes in the past. However, this time there's something different, with the crisis being global akin to the events that triggered the Great Depression of the 1930s. This crisis spread quickly and rapidly moved from the US to European countries that show the weakest economic indicators (PIIGS: Portugal, Ireland and Italy, Greece and Spain). This course will focus on the long run causes, consequences and EU responses to the crisis, conditionally on the characteristics of the countries involved. We will focus on the long process of European Integration and discuss whether it may represent a possible solution to the recent crisis.