European Fiscal Policy – Lecture 2 SWS

Prof. Dr. Friedrich Heinemann
ZEW Mannheim and Universität Heidelberg
Email: heinemann@zew.de

 Contents:

The lecture deals with issues of European fiscal policy. It covers both the EU as a fiscal player(EU budget) and the European coordination of national fiscal policies. The lecture also reflects the experience and institutional innovations in the context of the both the euro area debt crisis and the Corona pandemic.

Teaching language: English

Dates and place:

Monday, 08 May 2023, 8:30 – 15:00, Festsaal, Schlossplatz 5
Tuesday, 09 May 2023, 8:30 – 15:00, Festsaal, Schlossplatz 5

Monday, 26 June 2023, 8:30 – 15:00, Festsaal, Schlossplatz 5
Monday, 27 June 2023, 8:30 – 15:00, ST A 1, Am Stadtgraben 9

If necessary, there will be a few additional zoom lectures – dates will be agreed upon presence sessions.

Structure

INTRODUCTION

1. Survey on the history and institutions of the European Union

THE EU BUDGET

2. The EU budget and the multi-annual financial framework: Institutions

3. The dominating spending policies: Common Agricultural Policy and Cohesion Policy

4. The normative view: The theory of fiscal federalism and its message for the division of tasks between EU and member countries

5. The positive view: Political-economic explanations

COORDINATION OF NATIONAL FISCAL POLICY WITHIN EMU

6. Theory of optimum currency areas and fiscal policy

7. Empirics of optimum currency areas and stabilizing effects of fiscal equalization schemes

8. Empirics: Sustainability of European public debt

9. European fiscal innovations up to the Corona crisis (Next Generation EU)

Examination

The course assessment is based on a written examination.

Password for Learnweb course: NGEU 

Literature

Baldwin, Richard and Charles Wyplosz, The Economics of European Integration, 6th edition, New York: McGraw-Hill, 2019 (MAIN READING).

De Grauwe, Paul, Economics of Monetary Union, 14th edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022.

Havlik, Annika, Heinemann, Friedrich, Helbig, Samuel, and Nover, Justus (2022), Dispelling the Shadow of Fiscal Dominance? Fiscal and Monetary Announcement Effects for Euro Area Sovereign Spreads in the Corona Pandemic, Journal of International Money and Finance, 122: 102578.

Heinemann, Friedrich (2021), The Political Economy of Euro Area Sovereign Debt Restructuring. Constitutional Political Economy, 32: 502-522

Principles of Economics

The lecture starts on Tuesday, April 11th and will take place weekly from 14:00 to 16:00 in room JUR 4.
Tutorials will start two weeks later (i.e. on April 25th / April 27th). Each week, we will offer two sessions and you can choose which one to go to. The same content will be discussed in both of them. The times and places are:
Tuesdays, 10:00 to 12:00 in room JUR 2
Thursdays, 08:00 to 10:00 in room STA 1
Lectures and tutorials will to take place in person in the lecture hall,  but recordings of both will also be made available via learnweb.
Please note that in the summer semester the course is only offered in English. In the winter semester, the same course is held in German.
In case of any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at tobias.boehm@uni-muenster.de