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Speaker(s): Waltraud Schelkle, Visiting Scholar, CES, Harvard University
Sponsor(s): Visiting Scholars Seminar: New Research on Europe
Creating the European monetary union is arguably one of the biggest experiments in social history. But we lack a theoretical account that can make sense of creating a union between an ever expanding number of diverse and unequal nation states. My point of departure is that integration generally allows for risk-sharing between states. Diversity of member states makes risk-sharing in a monetary union possible and potentially beneficial, but at the same time ripe with political conflict and economic strains. In this talk, I will give an overview of this novel theory. Then I present empirical research on how financial integration in the Euro area was meant to contribute to income and consumption smoothing and explain why this has not worked out as expected.
Contact(s): Arthur Goldhammer, art.goldhammer@gmail.com