82005 - ECONOMICS OF THE EU

Conoscenze e abilità da conseguire

The course is an introduction to the ECONOMICS and POLITICAL ECONOMY of the European Union. Special importance is given to the economic, political and institutional prerequisites of EU integration and enlargement – and to the consequences that integration and enlargement have on member states. Hence, students will become familiar with concepts and models of economics and political economy that are especially useful for understanding and evaluating these processes and the policies that accompany them. One third of the course is dedicated to the institutional and policies innovations adopted since 2008, during the Great Recession.

Contenuti

Introduction: Organization and Overview (1 lecture)

1. Overview: What is the EU? Why is it this way? What has the EU achieved? (2 lectures)

1. A project with no strategy: Main steps in the integration process
2. EU institutions and their powers
3. The role of Member States
4. The Internal Market. Principles and Rules
5. Enlargement
6. EMU
7. EU and EMU in the XXI Century (so far): Divergence, Crises, Adaptation, Current challenges. Heading to where?

2. The Internal Market (2 lectures)

1. The IM for goods. Steps towards integration
2. Political economy of the IM
3. Measuring integration
4. Measuring productivity
5. Why is productivity lagging?
6. The IM for services. Why different?
7. Factor markets integration
8. Financial markets integration in a MU

3. Complements to the IM (5 lectures)

1. Taxation. Harmonization? How should multinationals be taxed?
2. Trade and Brexit
3. MFF and the Budget
4. Regional policy and Structural Funds
5. Social Europe

4. EMU – Setting up and the first years (3 lectures)

1. Why a monetary union? Why an incomplete union? Why no fiscal union?
2. Initial design: independence, mandate, convergence criteria
3. Rules for decentralized fiscal policy.
4. Political economy of an incomplete MU
5. Monetary Policy in practice: The first nine years
6. Decentralized Fiscal Policy and the SGP
7. Building up of real divergences.

5. EMU – Since 2008: Recession, Crises, Adaptation (7 lectures)

1. Financial crisis. Why? How? What have we learned?
2. Great Recession
3. Sovereign crises
4. Policy responses
5. Why the EA has been so less effective than the USA?
6. Debates on austerity
7. Non-standard MP
8. Economics and PE of ECB's bond purchasing programs
9. Back to normal: Will it ever happen? The challenges
10. After the Five Presidents’ Report: Completing EMU
11. The post-Covid recession. New MFF and the Recovery Fund
12. Challenges ahead: Growth and the Green Transition. Future of trade. Industrial vs Competition policies. Future of EU & EA governance.

Testi/Bibliografia

Lecture notes, required readings and documents are available in a dedicated Dropbox directory.

Required readings include also selected chapters in:

Baldwin,Richard and Wyplosz, Charles (2015) The Economics of European Integration. McGraw Hill, 5/e. (BW)

De Grauwe, Paul (2016) Economics of Monetary Union. Oxford UP, 11/e. (DG)

• Part 2: BW ch.7-8.
• Part 3: BW ch.11-12.
• Part 4 & 5: DG chs. 4-10.

The Drobox directory also contains many "additional" (not-required) readings (in "ADD" sub-directories) on all the topics discussed in class: these readings are useful for those interested to take a deeper look into many ongoing debates.

Metodi didattici

• The first 10 lectures (20 hours: Parts 1-3) will meet online on MS TEAMS.
• The next 10 classes (20 hours: Parts 4-5) will take place also in a "physical" class, where students are admitted up to the available (based on safety procedures) number of seats. If demand for seats exceeds availability, students will be divided into groups, and will alternate between physical and digital class.
• Students that so desire may in any case follow all lectures remotely on MS TEAMS.

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Lectures will be supported by PC-based presentations. Students must download and read these presentations (and possibly the related readings) before lectures.

Students are encouraged to take an active part in many class discussions. During classes on MS TEAMS, students are expected to interact with the teacher (and with each other) via the "Chat" line.

Students will also be taught and encouraged to search for and obtain relevant information (data; official documents; academic literature; policy analyses) through the Internet.

Modalità di verifica e valutazione dell'apprendimento

Attendance to classes is required (either in presence or online), except for Erasmus outgoing students.

All students are required at the beginning of the course to pass a Fitness Test (no marks). The purpose of this test is to verify their ability to search and download data from appropriate Internet sources and to produce simple data presentations.

Attending students ("frequentanti") are required to pass two written tests and to deliver an essay.

Students not attending will take a single written test, with no essay, in a regular exam session.

The structure of the exams is described below in more detail.

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FT: The Fitness Test ("Idoneità")

All students must pass a fitness test (FT), under the guidance of the instructor.

The test (which does not contribute to the final mark) requires to:

a) identify a EU economic topic with a relevant quantitative dimension;

b) download relevant data from a reputable source (Eurostat, ECB, OECD, IMF, National Statistical Services or Central Bank, etc...);

c) perform simple operations on those data in an Excel file;

d) prepare a "user friendly" table and graph to summarize the main characteristics of the data examined;

e) write a short comment (250 words) describing the main stylized facts that can be observed by the data;

f) assemble the comment,  the main graph or table(s) and the source data in a .pdf file.

The .pdf file of the FT (only) must be sent to the instructor before taking any intermediate or final exam.

ATTENDING STUDENTS ("Studenti frequentanti"):

The final mark is equal to the sum of the points obtained from three evaluations:

• Intermediate written test (prova intermedia - max 12 points)
• Final written test (prova finale - max 12 points)
• Essay (max 10 points).

If points are equal to 31 or more, the final mark is 30 cum laude.

Intermediate and Final written tests:

• Short answers (max. 250 words) to 3 open questions (out of 5).
• Each answer is valued up to 4 points.
• Exams take place at Labic.
• One exam may be missed exclusively for grave reasons (to be authorized explicitly), in which case it will have to be taken in the first “appello di esami” in the June session.

Essay: no more than 5000 words long.

• Must be written in (reasonably good) English.
• The topic will be chosen with the guidance of the instructor. In general, it should relate to a topic discussed during lectures.
• Must be delivered by e-mail with a .pdf file, ten days before the first “appello d’esami” in June.

NON ATTENDING STUDENTS ("Non frequentanti"):

These include Erasmus outgoing students and those who do not show up at the Intermediate and Final Tests.

They will take a single written exam in any regular exam session (prova totale).

• The exam will require short answers (max 250 words) to 6 (out of 8) open questions. Each question is valued up to 5,5 pts.
• Topics and readings are the same as for attending students.
• No essay required.

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For all students, a positive grade (greater than or equal to 18/30) may be refused only once.

A new exam must then be taken in the next exam session, as a "non attending" students.

Strumenti a supporto della didattica

Detailed lecture notes cover all topics included in the course.

They are available on a Dropbox directory that will be shared with students (A link will be given during the first class).

Lecture notes provide the basis for the lectures delivered in class, and for the ensuing discussions.

Students are advised to download and read these notes (and possibly the related readings) before lectures.

During online classes on MS TEAMS, students are expected to interact with the teacher (and with each other) via the "Chat" line.

Orario di ricevimento

Consulta il sito web di Riccardo Rovelli