Die pan-europäische Integration: Herausforderung für die Wirtschaftswissenschaft

This paper tries to identify how economics as a science has reacted to the challenge of European integration. As regards the monetary union, we appear to be confronted with the oft deplored disagreement among economists, even on the fundamental question of whether it makes sense at all. We hear arguments to the effect that Europe is no optimal currency area, countered by severe doubts regarding the underlying criteria from the theory of optimum currency areas. We see economists questioning the economic significance of the convergence criteria set out in the famous Maastricht treaty, while at the same time others insist that they be obeyed without compromise. In the meantime, the decision to go ahead anyway seems to be driven primarily by political reasons, which should not necessarily be seen as a bad thing. Given this decision, however, economists can, and do, offer valuable advice on details of implementation. As to the real side of integration, economists are in much less disagreement on the principles. They more or less unanimously point out the long term efficiency gains from a better allocation of resources across all Europe. The challenge here is to quantify these gains and, perhaps more importantly, to identify adjustment costs and distributional implications involved. During the past decade, significant progress has been achieved in this vein. But, whatever the precision with which economists will be able to quantify these effects, it will always be left to governments to take normative judgements on acceptable trade offs.