The course aims to provide the student with analytical tools of a theoretical and empirical nature on European economic policy. In particular, the course aims to provide the analytical and interpretative tools to understand: 1) the process of European monetary integration; 2) the working of the common currency and the European Central Bank; 3) the main economic policy issues and challenges that the EU faces in the presence of sovereign debt crisis and macroeconomic shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

At the end of the course, the student will be able to understand and interpret the economic-political context and independently analyze past events and contemporary trends, with particular reference to the context of the Eurozone, using the main tools of comparative political economy, including its primary theoretical concerns.

To this end, the course proposes to transmit the following skills and knowledge:

KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING ABILITY
- knows the monetary and fiscal institutions that govern the EMU, their working and related economic policy instruments
- understands the current institutional set-up of the Eurozone and the functions of the European Central Bank
- understands the theory of optimal currency areas
- knows what the costs and economic benefits deriving from joining a country to a monetary union are and how they are generated
- evaluates the consequences of a country's choice to join a monetary union compared to the choice of remaining independent
- analyzes the consequences of symmetrical and asymmetrical economic shocks in a monetary union
- analyzes the consequences of temporary and permanent economic shocks in a monetary union
- analyzes monetary policies in a monetary union
- analyzes fiscal policies in a monetary union
- applies the gained knowledge to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the European currency framework
- communicates and expresses opinions in the context of the current debate with technical and formally correct terminology

KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING (applied)
- uses analytical models and graphical tools to understand and interpret the economic policies in the context of the European Union, with a particular focus on the Eurozone

AUTONOMY OF JUDGMENT:
-ties macroeconomic models to economic policies of the European Union and the Eurozone
- identifies the consequences of economic policies for the economic context
- develops and expresses (also in oral form) an autonomous thought on the main European economic policy topics

COMMUNICATION SKILLS:
- uses the technical language of the Economic Policy

ABILITY TO LEARN:
- gathers empirical data and carries out research on specific aspects of the European Economic Policy
- compares his/her skills with recent approaches to the subject and with the economic policies carried out in the context of the European Union and the Eurozone.