This paper provides an overview of the key steps that were made in the European Union toward enhancing fiscal policy coordination and integration prior to the Covid-19 crisis. It especially highlights the key challenges and strategies that should be considered when thinking of further fiscal...

History -- West european economic integration since 1950 (Nicholas Crafts) -- The history of European Economic and Monetary Union (Harold James) -- History of economic thought and policy-making at the European Commission (Ivo Maes) -- The single market and the euro -- The economics of the single...

What are the macroeconomic effects of tax adjustments in response to large public debt shocks in highly integrated economies? The answer from standard closed-economy models is deceptive, because they underestimate the elasticity of capital tax revenues and ignore crosscountry spillovers of tax...

Europe's debt crisis casts doubt on the effectiveness of fiscal austerity in highly-integrated economies. Closed-economy models overestimate its effectiveness, because they underestimate tax-base elasticities and ignore cross-country tax externalities. In contrast, we study tax responses to debt...