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What Is European Integration Really About? A Political Guide for Economists

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  • Enrico Spolaore

Abstract

Europe's monetary union is part of a broader process of integration that started in the aftermath of World War II. In this "political guide for economists" we look at the creation of the euro within the bigger picture of European integration. How and why were European institutions established? What are the goals and determinants of European Integration? What is European integration really about? We address these questions from a political-economy perspective, building on ideas and results from the economics literature on the formation of states and political unions. Specifically, we look at the motivations, assumptions, and limitations of the European strategy, initiated by Jean Monnet and his collaborators, of partially integrating policy functions in a few areas, with the expectation that more integration will follow in other areas, in a sort of chain reaction towards an "ever-closer union". The euro with its current problems is a child of that strategy and its limits.

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Paper provided by Department of Economics, Tufts University in its series Discussion Papers Series, Department of Economics, Tufts University with number 0774.

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Date of creation: 2013
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Handle: RePEc:tuf:tuftec:0774
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  • H40 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - General

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  1. Barry Eichengreen, 2012. "European Monetary Integration with Benefit of Hindsight," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(S1), pages 123-136, 03.
  2. Klaus Desmet & Ignacio Ortuño-Ortín & Shlomo Weber, 2009. "Linguistic Diversity and Redistribution," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 7(6), pages 1291-1318, December.
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  4. Barry Eichengreen & Jeffry Frieden, 1993. "The Political Economy Of European Monetary Unification: An Analytical Introduction," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(2), pages 85-104, 07.
  5. Alesina, Alberto & Spolaore, Enrico, 2005. "War, peace, and the size of countries," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(7), pages 1333-1354, July.
  6. Dyson, Kenneth & Featherstone, Kevin, 1999. "The Road To Maastricht: Negotiating Economic and Monetary Union," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198296386, December.
  7. Martin, Philippe & Mayer, Thierry & Thoenig, Mathias, 2005. "Make trade not war ?," CEPREMAP Working Papers (Docweb) 0515, CEPREMAP.
  8. Andrew Moravcsik, 1993. "Preferences and Power in the European Community: A Liberal Intergovernmentalist Approach," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(4), pages 473-524, December.
  9. Geoffrey Garrett, 1993. "The Politics Of Maastricht," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(2), pages 105-123, 07.
  10. Frankel, Jeffrey A & Rose, Andrew K, 1998. "The Endogeneity of the Optimum Currency Area Criteria," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 108(449), pages 1009-25, July.
  11. Alberto Alesina & Roberto Perotti, 2004. "The European Union: A Politically Incorrect View," NBER Working Papers 10342, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  12. Frieden, Jeffry A., 2002. "Real Sources of European Currency Policy: Sectoral Interests and European Monetary Integration," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 56(04), pages 831-860, September.
  13. Alesina, Alberto & Spolaore, Enrico, 2006. "Conflict, defense spending, and the number of nations," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 91-120, January.
  14. Desmet, Klaus & Ortuño-Ortín, Ignacio & Wacziarg, Romain, 2012. "The political economy of linguistic cleavages," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(2), pages 322-338.
  15. Perotti, Roberto & Alesina, Alberto, 2004. "The European Union: A Politically Incorrect View," Scholarly Articles 4553004, Harvard University Department of Economics.
  16. Philip R. Lane, 2012. "The European Sovereign Debt Crisis," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 26(3), pages 49-68, Summer.
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Blog mentions

As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
  1. The Importance of Being Europe
    by Steve Cecchetti and Kim Schoenholtz in Money, Banking and Financial Markets on 2014-10-27 12:28:33
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
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Cited by:

  1. Nicholas Crafts, 2014. "What Does the 1930s' Experience Tell Us about the Future of the Eurozone?," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(4), pages 713-727, 07.
  2. Athanasios Orphanides, 2014. "The Euro Area Crisis: Politics over Economics," Atlantic Economic Journal, International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 42(3), pages 243-263, September.
  3. Luigi Guiso & Paola Sapienza & Luigi Zingales, 2015. "Monnet's Error?," NBER Working Papers 21121, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  4. Virkola, Tuomo, 2014. "Fiscal Federalism in Four Federal Countries," ETLA Reports 38, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy.
  5. Francesco Farina & Roberto Tamborini, 2015. "Europe's Great Divide. A geo-economic-political map," LEQS – LSE 'Europe in Question' Discussion Paper Series 101, European Institute, LSE.
  6. Guiso, Luigi & Herrera, Helios & Morelli, Massimo, 2016. "Cultural Differences and Institutional Integration," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(S1), pages S97-S113.
  7. Mehlika Özlem Ultan, 2016. "The Effect Of Cultural Factors On The European Integration," Proceedings of International Academic Conferences 3605735, International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences.
  8. Nicola Acocella, . "The theoretical roots of EMU institutions and policies during the crisis," Working Papers 126/14, Sapienza University of Rome, Metodi e modelli per l'economia, il territorio e la finanza MEMOTEF.
  9. Tomas Adam & Oxana Babecka Kucharcukova & Jan Babecky & Vojtech Belling & Sona Benecka & Jan Bruha & Kamil Galuscak & Tomas Holub & Eva Hromadkova & Lubos Komarek & Zlatuse Komarkova & Kamila Kulhava , 2015. "Analyses of the Czech Republic's Current Economic Alignment with the Euro Area 2015," Occasional Publications - Edited Volumes, Czech National Bank, Research Department, number as15 edited by Kamila Kulhava & Lucie Matejkova, November.
  10. László Andor, 2016. "Towards shared unemployment insurance in the euro area," IZA Journal of European Labor Studies, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 5(1), pages 1-15, December.
  11. Luigi Guiso & Helios Herrera & Massimo Morelli, 2013. "A Cultural Clash View of the EU Crisis," EIEF Working Papers Series 1321, Einaudi Institute for Economics and Finance (EIEF), revised Jul 2013.
  12. Fabrizio Balassone & Sandro Momigliano & Marzia Romanelli & Pietro Tommasino, 2014. "Just round the corner? Pros, cons, and implementation issues of a fiscal union for the euro area," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 245, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
  13. Luigi Guiso & Helios Herrera & Massimo Morelli, 2016. "Cultural Differences and Institutional Integration," NBER Chapters, in: NBER International Seminar on Macroeconomics 2015 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  14. van Riet, Ad, 2016. "Safeguarding the euro as a currency beyond the state," Occasional Paper Series 173, European Central Bank.

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