ECUE European economics

CONTENT

• Introduction

  The introduction consists in a brief historical overview of the process of European integration, from the second World War to Brexit.

• Chapter 1. European single market

  The chapter presents the European single market, and introduces notions about trade and liberalisation of markets. The chapter deals in particular with the consequences of international trade and tariffs on the consumers and producers of the different countries.

• Chapter 2. The Common Agricultural Policy

  The chapter will present the history and microeconomics of the Common Agricultural Policy

• Chapter 3. The European Monetary Union

  This chapter will present some basic principles of exchange rates and the main advantages and problems of the Euro. Since you will study later in your curriculum those questions (open macroeconomics in L2; international monetary economics in L3), the chapter will be deliberately short, with a lot of additional content online.

• Chapter 4. Labour and migration

  The chapter will present some basic facts and questions about employment, the labour market, and the determination of wages. It will then deal with the impact of liberalising labour markets on employment, wages, and migrations.

• Chapter 5. Political integration and democratic legitimacy

  This chapter presents the main challenges of the process of political integration in Europe, with a focus on the history on euro-scepticism and some difficulties associated to finding rules of collective decision making. Additional material online presents the main EU institutions.

• Chapter 6. Brexit

  This chapter presents the key elements of the current withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (the 'Brexit'). This episode also perfectly summarises the main achievements and failures of the process of European integration.

• Groupwork: write a report on the topic of your choice

  Half of your grade will be a groupwork you will have to submit by the end of the semester. You will have to constitute groups of 4-5 students maximum, and you are free to choose the subject you want to work on.

  You will have to write a report of 5-10 pages about an economic issue related to the EU. You should be able to present the main economic questions behind your topic, and use the elements of the course to analyse it.

  The constitution of the group and your topic must first be validated: if you fail to report to the lecturer by February, 9th, 23h59, I will automatically form groups with the remaining students, and assign you a topic.