Over the past decade European economic integration has seen considerable institutional success, but the economic performance of the EU has been varied. While macroeconomic stability has improved and an emphasis on cohesion preserved, the EU economic system has not delivered satisfactory growth performance.
This book is the report of a high-level group commissioned by the President of the European Commission to review the EU economic system and propose a blueprint for an economic system capable of delivering faster growth along with stability and cohesion. It assesses the EU s economic performance, examines the challenges facing the EU in the coming years, and presents a series of recommendations.
The report views Europe's unsatisfactory growth performance during the last decades as a symptom of its failure to transform into an innovation-based economy. It has now become clear that the context in which economic policies have been developed has changed fundamentally over the past thirty years. A system built around the assimilation of existing technologies, mass production generating economics of scale, and an industrial structure dominated by large firms with stable markets and long term employment patterns no longer delivers in the world of today, characterized by economic globalization and strong external competition. What is needed now is more opportunity for new entrants, greater mobility of employees within and across firms, more retraining, greater reliance on market financing, and higher investment in both R&D and higher education. This requires a massive and urgent change in economic policies in Europe.

EMU is a completely new policy regime which has significant economic implications and which, it is hoped, will ultimately enhance the role of Europe on the world stage. EMU and Economic Policy in Europe takes stock of the initial experiences of EMU and assesses the challenges which will have to be addressed in the early years of its existence to ensure its long-term objectives are successfully achieved. Bringing together leading scholars and policymakers, the book considers some of the most pertinent and significant issues surrounding the euro from a variety of different perspectives. These include the behaviour of monetary and fiscal authorities, the implications for policy co-ordination, the impact of the euro on financial markets and the consequences of EU enlargement. The distinguished array of authors have produced a comprehensive and balanced assessment of the initial economic and policy challenges facing EMU. European policymakers, financial economists and anyone with an interest in the process of European integration will benefit from reading this accomplished book.

In the last 25 years, Europe has experienced a reduction in growth and an explosion in unemployment. At a time when this and the continuing existence of the welfare state are top of the European agenda, it has become increasingly popular to blame the globalization of the world economy for current problems. This book provides the first comprehensive set of studies on the impact of trade with developing countries on the European labour market. It argues that the evidence does not point to trade with developing countries as a major cause of European unemployment. Instead, technological change and domestic policy choices are the main causal factors. As a result, the contributors argue against protectionist trade polices, whose benefits to employment would be limited at best, but whose risk to world growth due to trade wars is immense. The next ten years are a critical period for European integration and expansion: Trade and Jobs in Europe will be of crucial importance to all those at the heart of the current debate: advisers, policy-makers, and researchers alike.

Over the past decade European economic integration has seen considerable institutional success, but the economic performance of the EU has been varied. While macroeconomic stability has improved and an emphasis on cohesion preserved, the EU economic system has not delivered satisfactory growth performance. This book is the report of a high-level group commissioned by the President of the European Commission to review the EU economic system and propose a blueprint for an economic system capable of delivering faster growth along with stability and cohesion. It assesses the EU s economic performance, examines the challenges facing the EU in the coming years, and presents a series of recommendations. The report views Europe's unsatisfactory growth performance during the last decades as a symptom of its failure to transform into an innovation-based economy. It has now become clear that the context in which economic policies have been developed has changed fundamentally over the past thirty years. A system built around the assimilation of existing technologies, mass production generating economics of scale, and an industrial structure dominated by large firms with stable markets and long term employment patterns no longer delivers in the world of today, characterized by economic globalization and strong external competition. What is needed now is more opportunity for new entrants, greater mobility of employees within and across firms, more retraining, greater reliance on market financing, and higher investment in both R&D and higher education. This requires a massive and urgent change in economic policies in Europe.

An examination of China’s participation in the World Trade Organization, the conflicts it has caused, and how WTO reforms could ease them China’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001 was rightly hailed as a huge step forward in international cooperation. However, China’s participation in the WTO has been anything but smooth, with China alienating some of its trading partners, particularly the United States. The mismatch between the WTO framework and China’s economic model has undermined the WTO’s ability to mitigate tensions arising from China’s size and rapid growth. What has to change? China and the WTO demonstrates that unilateral pressure, by the United States and others, is not the answer. Instead, Petros Mavroidis and André Sapir show that if the WTO enacts judicious reforms, it could induce China’s cooperation, leading to a renewed confidence in the WTO system. The WTO and its predecessor, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, are predicated on liberal domestic policies. They managed the previous accessions of socialist countries and big trading nations, but none were as large or powerful as China. Mavroidis and Sapir contend that for the WTO to function smoothly and accommodate China’s unique geopolitical position, it needs to translate some of its implicit principles into explicit treaty language. To make their point, they focus on two core complaints—that Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) benefit from unfair trade advantages, and that domestic companies, private as well as SOEs, impose forced technology transfer on foreign companies as a condition for accessing the Chinese market—and they lay out specific proposals for WTO reforms. In an age of global trade disputes, China and the WTO offers a timely exploration of unprecedented challenges to the current multilateral system and fresh ideas for lasting solutions.

A study of the nature and the policy implication of changes in the global economy in relationship to the process of regional integration, conducted using the newest techniques of economic analysis. The principal message drawn from these analytical and policy insights is that in a world characterised by trade distortions and nonlinearities, regional integration may or may not foster global integration, and may or may not advance regional or global convergence. The key is good economic policy based on sound economic analysis. Part one of the volume covers three international trade policy issues: regionalism and multilateralism; the political economy of trade policy; and trade income inequality. Part two (chapters 7-11) focuses on three 'domestic' problems faced by regional groups: labour migration; exchange rate arrangements; and real convergence.