Please join Boston area LSE Alumni for a discussion featuring two LSE Professors
Dear Reader,
Dr Riccardo Crescenzi and Dr Waltraud Schelkle.
Diversity in the European Union:
Asset or Liability for Growth and Stability
Wednesday, May 6th, 2015
6:00 - 8:00 pm
Harvard Center for European Studies
27 Kirkland Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
(map)
Reception to follow discussion
Free for AFLSE Members and Guests of Members
$10 for Non-Members
Kindly respond by April 29th by clicking here or by phone to 646-442-2895.
Popular and scholarly views of what's wrong with Europe tend to agree that the member states are too diverse to be integrated in one economic and monetary union. These brief talks propose to question this received wisdom. Since Adam Smith we know that countries can benefit from being different if they specialize and exchange their products via trade. Can these insights still be applied to European regions and countries? How can Europe benefit from its diversity?
Dr Riccardo Crescenzi will talk about innovation and economic growth in the European Union. He will discuss how the EU strategies to boost economic growth might deliver highly heterogeneous effects due to the structural differences between European cities and regions. While some areas are able to benefit from these measures others are not, increasing regional inequalities and tensions in the periphery of the Union.
Dr Waltraud Schelkle will talk about two ways in which the monetary union shares risks among its members: through a unified payments system and through the social regulation of migration. She argues that in particular the payments system TARGET acted like universal insurance during the crisis and was crucial for holding the Euro area together. It can serve as a model for how risk sharing in a union of diverse member states must be organized to achieve 'unity in diversity'.