What Is European Integration Really About? a Political Guide for Economists
NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES WHAT IS EUROPEAN INTEGRATION REALLY ABOUT? A POLITICAL GUIDE FOR ECONOMISTS Enrico Spolaore Working Paper 19122 http://www.nber.org/papers/w19122 NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138 June 2013 I am grateful to Jeff Frieden, Yannis Ioannides, Deborah Menegotto, Stelios Michalopoulos, Romain Wacziarg, and the editors of the Journal of Economic Perspectives (David Autor, Chang-Tai Hseih, and Tim Taylor) for their detailed comments. I also benefited from helpful feedback and conversations with many people, including Lorenzo Bini-Smaghi, Giancarlo Corsetti, Henrik Enderlein, Kai Konrad, Athanasios Orphanides, Lucas Papademos, and Daniela Schwarzer, and participants in the political economy discussion group at Harvard and a conference at the Condorcet Center for Political Economy in Rennes. Of course I am the only one responsible for all opinions and errors in this paper. The views expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research. NBER working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peer- reviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications. © 2013 by Enrico Spolaore. All rights reserved. Short sections of text, not to exceed two paragraphs, may be quoted without explicit permission provided that full credit, including © notice, is given to the source. What is European Integration Really About? A Political Guide for Economists Enrico Spolaore NBER Working Paper No. 19122 June 2013 JEL No. F15,F50,F55,H40,H77,N44 ABSTRACT Europe’s monetary union is part of a broader process of integration that started in the aftermath of World War II.
[Show full text]