This study addresses the two major challenges facing the global economy: globalization and the European structural crisis. In addition, it takes a closer look at the impact of this on the Italian economy. The findings reflect on the issue of long term growth and suggest ways in which to create sustainable financial conditions for the future.

We are now living in a period of disillusion in the ability of economic policy to stabilise the economy. This is proven by the onset of severe world recession in the early 1980s and the inability to invert the negative phase of the business cycle under way in the industrialized countries in the early 1990s. The failure of old policies motivates the research into the causes of economic fluctuations and their measurement whose results are published in this volume

The world economy is at a cross road: it can either widen and deepen international integration, within and between different areas, or be tempted by neo-protectionism. Which road should the international economy take? Which way will it take? The need to reform the present international monetary system has been almost continuously discussed since the collapse of the Bretton Woods System in August 1971, and even earlier, and it has found renewed interest since the Mexican financial crisis in early 1995. Despite the successful completion of the Uruguay Round in December 1993, many international trade problems remain: many sectors were not included in the agreement, antidumping action and safeguards are still possible, and many trade problems of developing and former communist countries have not been fully addressed. This book analyses this situation by first focusing on the problem of international financial stability and the relationship between national economic policies. It then focuses on the European monetary union within the context of the international monetary system. Finally, the development of international trade is examined within an endogenous growth framework.

This collection of essays is concerned with three major and debated topics in international economics, namely interdependence between countries, real and financial integration, and the conflicting relations between industrialized (North) and developing countries (South). The first section deals with the international policy coordination problem and the economic growth of open economics. In the second section new foundations for commercial policy and the problems of economic integration, real and monetary, are discussed. The final section includes an analysis of North-South relations and the price of instability of primary commodities.

New Institutional Economics open a new methodological perspective in political economy by posing the question of why economic institutions are created. This state-of-the-art collection examines this question of Arrow's looking at how these man-made constraints condition political, economic and social integration both informally and formally. New developments in game theory are applied to many case topical studies including corruption, central bank independence, globalization and other issues in contemporary economic governance.

Privatising firms and liberalizing their market environment generates in Eastern Europe a variety of problems, many of which are not common to the analogous attempts in industries countries. A first difference between the two experiences resides in establishing the value of the firm or of the assets that are being privatized. A second main difference concerns the lack of the record of market performance for the firm. The book explores these open questions through an overview of on-going and proposed processes in Section 1. In Section 2 theoretical foundations of privatization processes are proposed with respect to the financial market, industrial relations and foreign trade. A final key question is faced in Section 3: 'is there any alternative to privatization?'

We are now living in a period of disillusion in the ability of economic policy to stabilise the economy. This is proven by the onset of severe world recession in the early 1980s and the inability to invert the negative phase of the business cycle under way in the industrialized countries in the early 1990s. The failure of old policies motivates the research into the causes of economic fluctuations and their measurement whose results are published in this volume

The single market has been operating in Europe since 1 January 1993 but the twelve national fiscal systems remain independent. How will this be resolved? Harmonization and coordination or fiscal competition with distortions in the allocation of resources, in factor use, in localization of activities?

This book discusses the economic interaction and interdependence that has arisen amongst nations in the contemporary world economy, the nature and significance of the pattern of trade balances that have resulted from them and the question of what, if anything, should be done by national governments about that pattern. The need for international coordination of economic policies is also investigated.

This book brings together leading economists to analyze present economic issues and further debate on the need for sound economic policies to avoid a crash on a global scale. Subjects covered include: the US twin deficit, Western European economic integration, Eastern Europe's transition towards a market economy, the debt burden of the less developed countries, the growing and deepening discrimination against the rest of the world by new homogeneous areas such as the North America free trade area, and the new Europe and Japan. These are the issues at the head of global disequilibrium in the world economy.

In the post-war period, spending on social security, health and education has grown continuously in the leading industrialized countries. The considerable size of this spending as a percentage of GDP together with the ageing population raise doubts on the sustainability of welfare spending. These doubts have been accompanied in recent years by an increasing awareness of the allocational inefficiencies and the distributive inequalities caused by the provision of some social services. The welfare state should therefore be reconstructed not only through readjustment of the social security system but also a change in unemployment benefits and the taxation of workers to avoid the perverse spiral that may be produced in the future by cuts in welfare benefits, growing unemployment and the need to further reduce the social security services.

This book examines the Eurozone crisis in light of theoretical and empirical evidence. The first half explores specific theoretical contributions within a framework of growth theory models to examine the two major pillars of the European construction, the European Central Bank and the Maastricht Treaty, and seeks to explain why they are theoretically wrong. The second half presents results of counterfactual simulations using the Oxford Econometric model and estimates what the Eurozone has lost in terms of economic and social cost from 2002 to 2014 as a consequence of the super-evaluation of the Euro and the Maastricht Treaty parameters being mistakenly fixed and pursued. Finally, the author supports the urgent need to refund the European Union, up-dating The Maastricht Treaty and the ECB statute to build three concentric circles: the USE (United States of Europe), the EU (European Union), the EAFTDA (Europe/Africa Free Trade and Development Area).

This book concentrates on one of the most important directions for research on banking and finance for the next decade: the problem of information and risk management. Recent theoretical and empirical contributions consider asymmetric information between investors and financiers as a major determinant of financial risk. In this framwork, financial and banking innovation may be regarded as policy and individual agents' response to the problem of asymmetric information and risk management and also as a self-generated innovation process posing new challenges to policymakers in terms of informational efficiency and risk control.

Antitrust, Regulation and Competition brings together a group of well-known European and American academics to examine antitrust policies and competitive behaviour on a wide variety of topical cases and critical markets. Taking both a theoretical and applied perspective, the contributors examine issues such as entry and market concentration, auctions, technological innovation, privatization and the role of public firms, market transparency, the supply of product quality and multinational firms.

In the last twenty years, Italy has undergone significant changes in the functioning of the labor market and industrial relations. This makes it an excellent case study for evaluating labor market practices and possibilities for reform. This book brings together leading Italian and European scholars to trace the evolution of labor bargaining and industrial relations from both a theoretical and empirical perspective.

Building the "new Europe" is at the core of the new international economic and political initiatives leading the world through the 1990s and toward the 21st century. This challenge rests on dual processes: on the one hand, the European Community-wide single market and monetary integration; and, on the other, the East European transition to the market place and integration with Western economies. This second of two volumes is divided into two parts. The first section includes essays on the general and specific topics linked to the transitions to a market economy and to a pluralist political system. The second section comprises essays on individual countries, such as Hungary, Poland, Yugoslavia, and the Republics of the former Soviet Union.

Single market and monetary integration of EEC countries, Germany's reunification and Central and East Europe's move towards the marketplace are redesigning the european political and economic spheres and creating great opportunities and challenges for Europe and the rest of the world. Europe in the nineties will take a new international policy direction, which may serve to strengthen supranationalism. The Community as a whole must ensure that these new steps make it possible to reconcile the economic interests of countries on the continent and in the rest of the world. This book deals with the problems raised by this process and is divided into three sections: the first section comprises five essays on fundamental themes of single-market process; the second section is devoted to the issue of monetary unification and the third and final section studies the connections between the 'new' Europe and the rest of the world.

Antitrust, Regulation and Competition brings together a group of well-known European and American academics to examine antitrust policies and competitive behaviour on a wide variety of topical cases and critical markets. Taking both a theoretical and applied perspective, the contributors examine issues such as entry and market concentration, auctions, technological innovation, privatization and the role of public firms, market transparency, the supply of product quality and multinational firms.

At the beginning of the 1990's unemployment grew in all industrialized countries: the essays in this collection focus on the causes and cures of this worrying phenomenon. The volume starts by analysing the disparities in the different national experiences and then focusing on European unemployment. This is followed by more theoretical discussions using econometric models. The volume ends with policy recommendations.

Since the early 1970s the Italian economy has been moving towards an irreversible real and financial crisis. Paradoxically, the conditions engendered by the currency crisis and recession may also provide the basis for a new economic policy strategy, which could lead to built a mere 'economic miracle!'

The single market has been operating in Europe since 1 January 1993 but the twelve national fiscal systems remain independent. How will this be resolved? Harmonization and coordination or fiscal competition with distortions in the allocation of resources, in factor use, in localization of activities?

Privatising firms and liberalizing their market environment generates in Eastern Europe a variety of problems, many of which are not common to the analogous attempts in industries countries. A first difference between the two experiences resides in establishing the value of the firm or of the assets that are being privatized. A second main difference concerns the lack of the record of market performance for the firm. The book explores these open questions through an overview of on-going and proposed processes in Section 1. In Section 2 theoretical foundations of privatization processes are proposed with respect to the financial market, industrial relations and foreign trade. A final key question is faced in Section 3: 'is there any alternative to privatization?'