The Impact of EMU on Social Policies. Interdisciplinary Perspectives
Seminar series Silvana Sciarra and Bo Stråth Autumn 2000
The seminar, centred on the current debate on the impact of the single currency in several fields of social policies, aims to bring together experts from various fields. Professors Sciarra and Stråth will provide the theoretical framework in introductory seminars. They will attempt to highlight the historical background of the adoption of the single currency and the legal innovations linked to it. Attention will be paid to the Employment Title in the Amsterdam Treaty and to the new proposals approved at the Lisbon Council in March 2000. The proposal to coordinate macroeconomic strategies with structural and employment policies, put forward as an innovation and a challenge, is now in the process of being implemented and will certainly prove to be an open field for experimentation.
One perspective to be investigated is collective bargaining, particularly wage negotiations. The seminar will offer the opportunity to reflect upon both economic and industrial relations implications and to compare them with the indications given by the ECB,
Another way to examine the impact of the single currency is that of national reactions to what is feared to be a further weakening of social policies. Some Nordic countries, in particular Sweden and Finland, will be presented as examples of legal systems with strong traditions in the social field having inventive solutions to propose.
The political science approach will be emphasised in the seminar, revisiting multilevel policymaking theories and including monetary policies among the variables shaping current trends in social policies.Professor Sciarra and Prof Stråth
Wednesdays 11.00-13.00 Sala Triaria, Villa Schifanoia
Programme of guest lecturers
11 October: Prof. Tito Boeri, Prof. Associato di Economia del lavoro, Bocconi, Milano: “Would You Like to Shrink the Welfare State? The Opinions of European Citizens” Tito Boeri, Axel Börsch-Supan, and Guido Tabellini, paper prepared for the Economic Policy Panel, October 2000.
18 October: Prof. Andrea Ichino, Prof. Di Economia all’Istituto Europeo di Firenze: “Do labour market conditions bias judges? The selections of firing litigations for trial in an Italian firm” Andrea Ichino, Michele Polo and Enrico Rettore
8 November: Anna Ekström, Secretary of State, Ministry of Industry, Stockholm: “Employment on the EU Agenda: towards the Stockholm Summit”
15 November: Prof. Jaakko Kiander, Research Director Government Institute for Economic Research, Helsinki, Finland: “Social security, Payroll Tax adjustment and real exchange rate: the Finnish model.”
22 November: Prof. Phillipe Pochet: Political Scientist, Free University of Brussels (ULB), Director of the “Observatoire social européen”, Associate Scholar at the Institute For European Studies (Free University of Brussels) where he co-ordinates (with G. Goetschy) the Research Unit on Social Europe. – title forthcoming.
A European Political Economy in Historical Light: From the Werner Plan to the EMU Spring 2001
Bo Stråth
This seminar’s aim was the discussion of the contribution to the book From the Werner Plan to the EMU
Seminar/Workshop programme
1 FEB (Tues) 11-13
Bo Stråth
Introduction
15 FEB (Tues) 11-13
Peter Burgess
The Concept of Money from the Werner Plan to the Delors Report
29 FEB (Tues) 11-13
Barbara MacLennan
EMU and the Finance of Social Investment
14 MAR (Tues)9-11
Sheila Dow, Stirling University
ECB Monetary Policy Banking and Unemployment
21 MAR (Tues) 11-13
Hubert Zimmermann, Ruhr-Universität Bochum
The fall of the House of Bretton Woods and the construction of a European Monetary order
4 APR (Tues) 11-13
Bruno Jobert, CNRS/CERAT Grenoble
Heavy Bargaining, Weak Public Debate: Some limits to the Europeanization of Policy Forums
4 APR (Tues) 15-17
David Purdy, University of Manchester
Work, Employment and Social Citizenship in Contemporary History
11 APR (Tues) 11-13
Ole Roste, The Norwegian School of Management
OCA Costs and Scandinavian Labour Markets
18 APR (Tues) 11-13
Andrew Martin, Harvard University
EMU and the European Model of Society: Hypotheses and tentative conclusions
2 MAY (Tues ) 11-13.00
Salvatore Pitruzzello
Hysteretic Unemployment and Economic Policy The Neoliberal “Attack” against Democratic Politics in the New Europe
2 MAY (Tues) 15-17
Roger Hammersland
17 MAY (Wed) 9-11
Silvana Sciarra
Employment Policies in the era of EMU: a Legal Point of View
17 MAY (Wed) 11-13
Diamond Ashiagbor
EMU and the shift from a ‘social policy’ agenda to an ’employment policy’ agenda in the European Union
23 MAY (Tues)11-13
David Purdy, University of Manchester
Political Economy in the Capitalist Democracies: Fron Keynesian Revolution to “Third Way”
24 MAY (Wed)14-18 (dinner 20.00)
½ day Workshop
Exploration in Economic Sociology. Economics, Institutions and Culture
Tom Heller, Stanford Univ, Wilfried Spohn, Bo Stråth and Richard Swedberg, Stockholm School of Economics
26 MAY (Fri) 11-13
Ulrike Liebert, Universität Bremen
The Monetary Union and the Widening Gap in Support of the EU
31 MAY (Wed) 9-13 (Buffet 13.00)
½ day Workshop
Social Democracy and Economic Management: Can the primacy of the Political be regained?
Jos de Beus, Amsterdam University and Ton Notermans (see programme Web)
5 JUN (Mon) 9-13 (Buffet 13.00)
½ day General Discussion plus presentation and discussion of two new books:
After Full Employment
and
Le Travail et La Nation
SEM. LA FONTE
21 June 11-13
Robert Salais, Filling the Gap between Macroeconomic Employment Policies and Locally-based Co-ordination: A Hidden Agenda for Europe?
22 JUN (Thurs) 9-13 (Buffet 13.00)
½ day Workshop
Labour Market Norms in Transition. The Flexibility Rhetoric in Europe and the USA in Comparison: Social Learning or Social Unlearning?
Fred Block, Karl Klare, Silvana Sciarra, Bo Stråth