Economic Policy in the European Union analyses the key issues confronting Europe as we enter the 21st century. It focuses mainly on the transition problems linked with the creation of European Monetary Union as well as more specific issues such as social, labour, environmental and science and technology policy. It addresses major questions, including: * is it true that the disappearance of exchange risks will benefit trade and growth? * can the EMU function if integration is not speeded up in other areas? * will the EMU enhance internal cohesion? * is the creation of a single currency a popularly accepted idea in the member states? The authors also examine some more specific issues including European Work Councils, the possibility of coordinated environmental policy within the European Union, employment rights and technological collaboration. This topical book will be welcomed by those scholars, students and policymakers interested in some of the most important issues currently faced by Europe.

This book addresses a number of vital economic convergence issues in the European Union. These are both general and specific issues relating to financial and monetary matters as well as social and labour market concerns. The book opens with a discussion of problems of a general nature. Questions posed include: What is the convergence record in the EU so far? Is there a sign of Baumol and Quah's 'convergence clubs' and 'twin peaks'? Have the 'structural funds' of the European Commission made any difference? The authors then analyse questions of a fiscal and monetary nature: Can we expect the monetary policy of the ECB to have similar effects in the EMU member-states, or is it in itself a source of asymmetric shocks? Has EU membership made any difference, with respect to the initial differences in tax revenue structures? Finally the book focuses on questions regarding social and labour markets: Is global economic convergence compatible with sustainable differences in national social protection levels? Does European globalisation force labour markets to 'de-institutionalise' and do European labour markets converge to a 'Third Way' model? Academics and researchers of European studies and economic policy will find this up-to-date book of great interest, as will policymakers and business leaders both affected by and from within the EU.

This unique and fascinating book illustrates that the 'credit crunch' and the ensuing financial and economic crisis of 2007-2009 did not only strike hard at the economy in the Western world, but also at its policymakers, at economics as a scientific discipline and, more specifically, at the process of European integration itself. In a series of theoretical and empirical papers, the expert contributors discuss the impact of the financial crisis on European integration in detail, considering issues including governance, sovereign debt crises, global economic imbalances, and post-crisis perspectives from Central and East European countries. The conclusion is that there is an urgent need for political integration in Europe as a necessary tool to facilitate economic integration. This book will prove invaluable to both academics and practitioners with a special interest in the economics of European integration, international financial markets, economics and international business. Contributors include: F.C. Bagliano, H. Berger, N.D. Coniglio, P. De Grauwe, S. Dumitrescu, M. Heipertz, A. Horobet, D. Ioannou, A.M. Lejour, J. Lewis, J. Lukkezen, K.-S. Lee, C. Morana, V. Nitsch, M. Pirovano, F. Prota, Z. Qian, S. Sarisoy Guerin, A. Van Poeck, J. Vanneste, P. Veenendaal

This book deals with aspects of the national innovation system of Belgium. It is the result of a study jointly undertaken by teams of the University of Antwerp (RUCA) and the Free University of Brussels (ULB) in the context of the OECD DSTI Working Group on Innovation and Technology Policy, which brought to gether specialists from most of the OECD countries in an effort to streamline and co-ordinate research on national innovation systems. The 'systemic' approach - as opposed to the traditional 'linear causal' ap proach - has, in recent years, increasingly become the framework for the study of the complex relationships between R&D, innovation, the economic performance of firms and of the economy in which they operate, technological policy, and, fi nally, the institutional framework of the national economy, including its transna tional aspects. Obviously, the systemic approach did not fall out of the blue but has its roots in different schools of economic thought. The theoretical foundations of the national innovation system approach are therefore first discussed in Chapter 1. Chapters 2 and 3 introduce the reader to some peculiarities of the Belgian economy. Chapter 2 deals with the sources of Belgian prosperity, looked at from a long-term perspective and with particular attention being given to the small-open-economy characteristics of Belgium."