1. EU MONETARY AND FISCAL POLICY TOPICS IN ECONOMIC POLICY – SPRING 2009 - JMU OUTLINE OF THE COURSE AND PRELIMINARY INFORMATION

2. WHO I AM Dr. Luigi Marattin Department of Economics – Univ. of Bologna luigi.marattin@unibo.it Cv available.

3. FEW INFORMATION Degree in Economics of International Institutions (Univ. Ferrara, 2001) MSc in Economics (Univ. of Warwick, 2002) Ph.D. in Economics (Univ.of Siena, 2007) Fulbright scholar in 2005 (NYU and Columbia University) Research Interest: macroeconomics, fiscal policy, public finance, economic growth, financial stability.

4. CONTACT INFORMATION Email: luigi.marattin@unibo.itluigi.marattin@unibo.it Office hours: Tuesdays 12-1 pm. Web site: http://............... In the meantime, we’ll comunicate via mailing list.

5. WHAT WE’LL DO HERE Get a good understanding of: The EU integration process How monetary and fiscal policy work in the EU framework The differences between EU and US The impact of the current crisis

6. CLASSES Tuesdays 1-4 pm Aula Verrocchio Start and breaks…….? - start at 13.15 with 10 min.break - start at 13 with 20 min.break No cellphones during classes please Participation is very important to me.

7. OFFICE HOURS Tuesdays 12 – 1 pm I am always available at my email address (luigi.marattin@unibo.it) for questions.luigi.marattin@unibo.it

8. ASSESSMENT 15% : written feedback 15% : active and meaningful participation 15% : presentations (more on this in a min) 25%: final exam (“ “ “ ) 30% : final paper ( “ “ )

9. Presentations Around week 6,7. Individual presentations on country reports (see reading material in the Syllabus, week 6). You will have to play the role of an economist working for EU commission, trying to assess the country’s progress towards either EU or EMU membership. I’ll evaluate communication skills, clearness, competence.

10. Final paper 7000 words Week 7: choose the topic (and hand-in a short abstract of your intentions and aims) Week 9: hand in your first draft Week 10: feedback on your first draft Week 11: final submission I’ll be evaluating your writing skills, synthesis and completeness in report writing.

11. Final exam Four / five open questions (e.g. “Explain each of the four Maastricht convergence criteria and discuss their possible limitations”) Be precise but complete. Take extra-care with handwriting……please!

12. BOOK Paul de Grauwe, “Economics of Monetary Union”, Oxford University Press. Lecture slides will be quite detailed (circulation through mailing list and, hopefully, soon downloadable from my web site). Reading material in the Syllabus

13. OUR CALENDAR Week 1 – Week 5 (10 February) Spring break Week 6 (24 February)- Week 10 (31 March) No class on 10 March (Brussels). Final exam: 7 April Grades will be approximately available from April 18.

14. OUR PATH Basic toolkit and a flavour of EU history (first week) Monetary Policy in the EU (week 2- 4) Fiscal Policy in the EU (week 5- 9) The financial integration and the origin of the current crisis (last week)