GEEROMS H. - Macroeconomic Environment for European Business (20h)

The main objective of the course is to achieve a better understanding of the theoretical principles, but, more important, of the practical application and consequences of monetary, fiscal and structural economic policy in the EMU and their impact on the business environment. In particular, the course deals with the theory of optimal currency areas, the EMU compliance with it and the particular macro-economic policy of the EMU and its member states. After analysing the history of the thinking and the politics behind the idea of the EMU, we discuss in further detail the weaknesses of the institutional set up of the EMU, the Eurocrisis, the recently adopted measures and the way forward. The course is very much linked to recent events: the low growth and low inflation environment, also as a consequence of the financial and the Eurocrisis; the new rules and new institutions; the difference between German and French economic thinking, financial regulation, the Brexit question and the outlook or the EMU.