Economics of European Integration - The Perspective of Italy

Seminar paper from the year 2013 in the subject Business economics - Economic Policy, printed single-sided, grade: 2.0, University of Applied Sciences Berlin, language: English, comment: Analysis of the Italian economic development after joining the European Monetary Union with special regard to Robert Mundell's Theory of Optimum Currency Areas , abstract: After a successful launch of the Euro and some beneficial years for the countries in the European Monetary Union enjoying low interest rates, the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in 2008 triggered a global financial and economic crisis which especially in the European Monetary Union turned into a sovereign debt crisis. Based on the ninth edition of Paul De Grauwe s book Economics of Monetary Union , this paper analyzes Italy s economic development in the last years and shows the benefits and costs for Italy of being in the European Monetary Union with special regard to Robert Mundell s theory of optimum currency areas (OCA-theory) (1961), the occurrence of asymmetric tendencies/shocks, their relevance for the country, and the question of overcoming of those shocks.In the end a clear answer is given if it was a good or a bad decision for Italy and its economy to join the European Monetary Union.