CLAUDIA NARDONE

*Economics of European Integration a.a. 2025-2026 - prof. Reganati (3 ECTS) prof. Nardone (6 ECTS)*

Lessons will start on Tuesday, September 18, 2025, according to the following classroom schedule:

• Thursday: 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m., Room Calasso
• Friday: 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m., Room Lauree

Please note that on the following dates - September 19 and 26, October 3 and 10 - the lectures will be held exclusively online due to classroom availability issues, at the following link:
https://meet.google.com/htb-tyyu-mzg 

All students MUST be registered on the Google Classroom "Economics of European Integration" in order to access all course materials and announcements:
https://classroom.google.com/c/NTQ1NDg1NzAwMDBa?cjc=zxpmhmm

Course objective: The primary goal of this course is to provide students with a basic understanding of the concepts and analysis of economic integration. The course will cover the main theoretical issues related to economic integration (customs union, common market etc.) As a most successful scheme of international economic integration special emphasis is given to the European Union. Although the course will concentrate on main economic aspects of the European integration, a brief overview of historical and political foundations of the European Union will be presented.
 
The course is divided in two parts.
The first part considers the basic economics of trade protection, the stages of economic integration – from Customs Union to Common Market to Economic and Monetary Union. Special focus will be addressed to the formation of customs unions and the costs/benefits of joining trading blocs such as the EU. We also study the Single Market program - the four freedoms (goods, services, capital and labour), nontariff barriers, factor mobility; the location of industry and the “new economic geography”; the effects of regional integration on FDI.
In the second part some basic principles behind macroeconomic and monetary integration will be studied. In particular, it considers the history of monetary union and the European monetary system. This part will analyze both key theoretical and practical questions of monetary integration. What are the costs of a loss of monetary independence? What is the likely impact of asymmetric shocks? How quickly does the economy adjust? What criteria need to be in place for a single currency area to be successful? The final session will consider the impact of the financial crisis on the eurozone.
 
Structure of the Course
Part one – Economic Integration, trade and the single market
1. History, law, institutions and the budget of European Union
2. Essential microeconomic tools and tariff analysis
3. The essential economics of preferential liberalization
4. Growth effects and factor market integration
5. Location effects, economic geography and regional policy
 
Part Two – Monetary Union and economic crisis
1. Essential tools of macroeconomics
2. Optimal currency area
4. The monetary union: principles and practice
5. Fiscal policy and the stability pact
6. The three crises of the eurozone
 
Textbook:
- Reganati, Nardone, Economics of European Integration, cod. ISBN 9781307869750, McGraw-Hill Create
 
Office hours: Thursday 2 p.m. - 4 p.m., by appointment. Please send an email to the professor: claudia.nardone@uniroma.it