The Economics of European Integration

The year 2007 marked the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, which established the European Economic Community (EEC). Since then, barriers to trade have been abated so that the European Union (EU) -- as the community has been renamed in the early `90s -- is now considered a free trade zone. Moreover, in the late `90s some member countries have given up national currencies and adopted a single currency, the Euro, within the European Monetary Union (EMU). European integration therefore takes the form of a process of political integration, trade liberalization and monetary unification. The aim of the course therefore consists in tracing the process of European integration from

1. the political-institutional viewpoint, with particular reference to the evolving political context, the progress of enlargement which has widened the membership of the EU from the original six members to the current 27 and the development of institutions embodying the different stages of integration;
2. the economic viewpoint, with particular reference to the benefits and costs of abating (both tariff and non-tariff) trade barriers, and to the role of the labor market;
3. the monetary and currency viewpoint, with particular reference to the benefits and costs of establishing a monetary union, the different stages of monetary integration, the strengths and weaknesses of institutions designed to implement the monetary union.