B019593 - ECONOMICS OF EUROPEAN INTEGRATION

Italian

The course aims at discussing and analysing the process of economic European integration. Main topics: developments in markets integration and their effects on economic growth; localization of economic activities in the EU; the OCA theory; the macroeconomics of European integration: economic policies after the recent economic crisis; the EU budget and reforming proposals; the integration of financial markets and the capital markets union.

The textbook for this course is Baldwin-Wyplosz (2020), The Economics of European Integration, Sixth Edition, Mc-Graw Hill.

Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, L’euro in prospettiva storica, (doi: 10.1402/1268), il Mulino (ISSN 0027-3120), Fascicolo 1, gennaio-febbraio 2002 (downloadable from moodle)


These references should be integrated by other materials (papers, reports, articles, institutional documents) made available on the e-learning page of the course. To get the keyword to access the page, please ask the teacher.

Knowing and Understanding the economic theories and the main characteristics of economic institutions and macroeconomic governance in the European Union.
Abilities at the end of the course: 1) to critically analyze and discuss the theoretical foundations of institutional framework and governance of economic policies in the European Union; 2) to have a critical autonomous thinking on the opportunity and the design of reforming the existing framework and on the future perspectives of the economic integration process; 3) to search the literature on the topics of the course and to exploit it at professional level; 4) to effectively communicate with appropriate specific language.

Macroeconomics and international economics.

This is an essential requirement also for Erasmus and foreign students as well as for students of other degrees at the University of Florence.

Lectures and seminars with Italian and foreign experts.

The course syllabus is available on the Moodle page of the course.

Attending and non-attending students are encouraged to download the slides of the lectures and all other materials available on the platform. The key of the course to access the Moddle page should be asked to the teacher.

This course is part of the Jean Monnet Chair "HOuseholds’ energy Poverty in the EU: PERspectives for research and policies" (HOPPER) financed by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Commission for the years 2019-2023.

https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/projects/eplus-project-details/#project/610775-EPP-1-2019-1-IT-EPPJMO-CHAIR

FINAL EXAM
For all students (attending and non attending), the final exam consists of a written exam (in Italian) with essay questions on the course topics.

In the written exam, students should show: knowledge of the course topics and ability to organize and present this knowledge with the correct use of language and glossary specific of the economic discipline; the ability to critically analize the issues which are relevant for the topic; the ability to apply the knowledge to specific cases and to use them to design future scenario of the process of economic integration in the EU.

A mid-term exam is organized after the first two modules of lectures.

Introductory concepts and the evolution of economic integration in Europe. The AVO theory. Pre-crisis economic governance: criteria for managing fiscal policy in a monetary union. The Stability and Growth Pact and its reform. Structural balances of public accounts: the Cyclically-Adjusted Budget Balance (CAB) and the European Union methodology. Governance after the crisis. The European Semester, the Six-Pack, the Two-Pack. The Fiscal Compact. Financial integration. Europe's interventions during the pandemic. The review of governance after the pandemic. Growth, localisation and integration. Economic convergence in the EU. The European budget.