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62. The Dog that Would Never Bite? The Past and Future of the Stability and Growth Pact
- Author:
- Martin Heipertz and Amy Verdun
- Publication Date:
- 11-2003
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies
- Abstract:
- This paper analyses the underlying reasons for the creation of the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) and its subsequent development in recent years. The paper examines the economic and political factors behind it, including the role of economic ideas, experts, politicians, institutional arrangements in the Maastricht Treaty, domestic politics, and the exceptional position of Germany in the realm of monetary integration in the EU. It concludes that a set of commonly held beliefs together with a corresponding power-political constellation explain the creation of the SGP.
- Topic:
- International Political Economy, International Trade and Finance, and Treaties and Agreements
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Germany
63. Development Cycles, Political Regimes and International Migration
- Author:
- Andrés Solimano
- Publication Date:
- 04-2003
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- United Nations University
- Abstract:
- At the turn of the twentieth century, a large number of Europeans, mostly from Italy and Spain, left their homelands and headed to the distant shores of Argentina in response to the good economic opportunities, fertile land and hopes for a better future that were to be found there. At the time, Argentina was one of the most vibrant world economies. Between 1870 and 1930, around seven million people migrated from Europe to Argentina, although nearly three million returned at some different point during those years. Also foreign capital responded to the opportunities offered by Argentina, and British financial institutions funded an important part of the construction of national infrastructure needed to support growth. In contrast, European migration to Argentina virtually stopped in the 1950s, and in the next 30 years or so the country become a net exporter of professionals who were fleeing economic decline, poor opportunities and authoritarian regimes. Moreover, during this period, financial capital steadily left Argentina looking for safer places. Nowadays, and in contrary to the flow of people a century ago, Argentineans are leaving in large numbers to Spain, Italy and other destinations. Emigration this time is associated with the collapse of the country's currency experiment of the 1990s which left a legacy of massive output decline, high unemployment, financial crisis and lost hopes.
- Topic:
- Development, Emerging Markets, International Political Economy, Migration, and Poverty
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Argentina, Spain, and Italy
64. Fiscal Policy in the New Open Economy Macroeconomics and Prospects for Fiscal Policy, Coordination
- Author:
- Leonor Coutinho
- Publication Date:
- 06-2003
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)
- Abstract:
- This paper reviews the analysis of fiscal policy in the new open economy macro-economics literature, in view of increasing interest in the question of transmission and coordination of policies across countries, stirred by developments in this literature and by the formation of the euro area. The analysis focuses on two main points: (i) the identification of welfare spillover effects to third countries; and (ii) the assessments made so far of the potential gains from pursuing non-cooperative and cooperative fiscal stabilisation policies. Regarding welfare spillovers, some additional results are derived to examine whether the exchange rate regime (flexible or fixed) matters for the size of these spillovers, and whether the type of policy pursued (balanced-budget or debt-financed) matters. Fixed exchange rates only seem to postpone the costs from the short to the long run, but the type of policy is crucial in determining the welfare impact of fiscal expansions. With respect to policy coordination, attention is drawn to the need to reflect on a potential role for fiscal policy as a stabilisation tool, and on possible interactions between fiscal and monetary policy.
- Topic:
- Economics and International Political Economy
- Political Geography:
- Europe
65. Hard and soft economic policy coordination under EMU: problems, paradoxes and prospects
- Author:
- Iain Begg
- Publication Date:
- 07-2003
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- Although the launch of the euro went better than many expected, sluggish growth, persistent unemployment and growing disenchantment with key elements of the economic governance system have led to demands for change, especially in policy coordination. This paper examines the criticisms of economic policy in the EU and the mechanisms through which it is coordinated, and considers how the EMU policy system might be reformed. It points to problems and paradoxes in the way economic governance operates, notably those surrounding its ability to deliver a coherent policy mix that brings together monetary fiscal and supply-side policies. The paper concludes with a discussion of whether gouvernment économique might offer a way forward.
- Topic:
- Economics and International Political Economy
- Political Geography:
- Europe
66. Theories at a loss? EU-NATO fusion and the 'low-politicisation' of security and defence in European integration
- Author:
- Hanna Ojanen
- Publication Date:
- 01-2002
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Finnish Institute of International Affairs
- Abstract:
- In the European Union, security and defence integration was for a long time seen as impossible or at least highly unlikely. Theories of European integration leaned complacently on the idea that security and defence policy have a specific character that explains this state of affairs. Yet, recent developments seem seriously to challenge their assumptions: the new joint EU crisis management with military means is bound at least to affect, if not replace, the traditional defence policy of the member states.
- Topic:
- Defense Policy, NATO, International Organization, and International Political Economy
- Political Geography:
- Europe
67. Back to the Nest? Europe's Relations with the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of Countries
- Author:
- John Ravenhill
- Publication Date:
- 12-2002
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Institute of European Studies (IES), UC Berkeley
- Abstract:
- Europe's association with African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries was the first of its interregional relationships. In the nearly half century since the signature of the Treaty of Rome, it developed into Europe's most institutionalized and multidimensional interregional relationship. It embraces not only trade and investment issues but also a development "partnership" that includes what has traditionally been the EU's largest single aid program, a joint parliamentary assembly, meetings of organizations representing civil society, and a dialogue on human rights. This chapter examines the factors that have shaped this relationship over the last four decades. The principal focus is on the trade regime, not just for consistency with the other contributions to this volume but also because it is in its trade dimension that the relationship has changed most dramatically over time.
- Topic:
- International Political Economy and International Trade and Finance
- Political Geography:
- Africa, Europe, Caribbean, and Rome
68. The Development of Europe's Linkages with East Asia: Hybrid Trans-Regionalism?
- Author:
- Julie Gilson
- Publication Date:
- 12-2002
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Institute of European Studies (IES), UC Berkeley
- Abstract:
- This chapter argues that the EU-Asia trans-regional relationship is still very hard to measure but that there is developing both a notion of economic Asia, a desire to collectivise responses in the face of differentiated resource allocation and a growing dominance of the form of regionalism demonstrated by the EU.
- Topic:
- International Political Economy and International Trade and Finance
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Asia
69. The European Union's Trade Policy towards MERCOSUR
- Author:
- Jörg Faust
- Publication Date:
- 11-2002
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Institute of European Studies (IES), UC Berkeley
- Abstract:
- Interregional relations between the European Union and MERCOSUR reflect a general trend of governments and firms to institutionalise their relations not only within but also across regions. As the global liberalization process within the WTO has been stagnating in recent years, transregional strategies have become attractive as next-best strategies. Against this background, the following analysis focuses on the institutional development of EU-MERCOSUR relations and the driving forces behind this development from a European perspective. This, because shedding some light on the political economy of relations between two of the most ambitious integration mechanisms of the 1990s should deepen our understanding of the forces shaping the growing importance of transregional and interregional trade relations. Rather than trying to explain the course of EU-MERCOSUR relations by one dominant hypothesis, I make an appeal for a multi-causal framework, highlighting three aspects of particular importance from a bottom up perspective. Firstly, one can observe that the interplay of economic interest groups has strongly influenced the course of interregional institutionalisation between the EU and MERCOSUR.) Secondly, political actors have not acted as mere agents of private interest but also have followed their own political agendas. Thirdly, the European Union's interregional trade strategy towards MERCOSUR has not been independent of the international context.
- Topic:
- International Political Economy
- Political Geography:
- Europe, South America, and Latin America
70. National Interests, State Power, and EU Enlargement
- Author:
- Milada Anna Vachudova and Andrew Moravcsik
- Publication Date:
- 12-2002
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- The EU enlargement process and its consequences are decisively influenced by material national interests and state power. Current EU leaders promote accession primarily because they believe it to be in their longterm economic and geopolitical interest, and applicant states embark on the laborious accession process because EU membership brings tremendous economic and geopolitical benefits, particularly as compared exclusion as others move forward. As in previous rounds of EU enlargement, patterns of asymmetrical interdependence dictate that the applicants compromise more on the margin—thereby contributing to a subjective sense of loss among those countries (the applicants) that benefit most. Domestic distributional conflict is exacerbated everywhere, but the losses are in most cases limited, inevitable and, in the longer term, even beneficial. Once in, we should expect applicant states, like their predecessors, to deploy their voting and veto power in an effort to transfer resources to themselves. While overrepresentation of smaller states gives the applicants an impressive number of votes, the lack of new “grand projects” essential to existing members, the diversity of the new members, and above all, the increasingly flexible decision-making structure of the EU, will make it difficult for the new members to prevail.
- Topic:
- International Political Economy and Politics
- Political Geography:
- Europe