Guía docente de Economic and Social Transformation in Europe: Policies and Challenges (MQ1/56/1/9)

This subject contributes to the academic and professional profiles of students from diverse backgrounds and degrees. In their future professional careers, all of them will need to be familiar with the different economic and social transformations that the European Union (EU) has gone through, as well as the policies and challenges that are likely to be present in the near future.

By attending the course, students will acquire the basic concepts, knowledge, and instruments to understand and critically analyze the EU's economic and social transformations, policies, and challenges. The course is structured into four main blocks. Firstly, It will present an overview of the significant economic and social transformations that took place in Europe in general, and in the EU in particular, during the last decades. In the second block, the course will delve into globalization, the different types of economic integration, and the benefits and challenges presented by these processes. This block will provide an overview that ranges from the global process of globalization to the specific case of the EU.

The third block will shed light on the different drivers of and consequences for the EU integration process. Particular attention will be paid to inequality in general and some specific types of inequality such as income and wage nequalities.  This will be analyzed according to two perspectives (theories): the Neoclassical Economic Theory and the New Economic Geography Theory. Although income is more equally distributed in the EU than in the USA, income inequality has grown in the last decades across EU Members and within EU Members too.  This has been specially the case after the great economic recession that started in 2007.The fourth block will delve into the challenges that the EU is currently facing, such as unemployment in general and youth and long term unemployment in particular. Lastly,  we will describe and evaluate the policies that have been enacted to address these challenges. 

• There are no specific initial requirements for this course.

Through this course, the students will acquire knowledge of the following subjects:

• C01 Advanced knowledge and understanding of the complex processes of European integration, Europeanisation and globalization.

• C02 Being able to identify he main lines of evolution of the aforementioned processes of European integration, Europeanisation and globalization.

THEORY SYLLABUS:

• Unit 1- Introduction Economic and Social Transformation in the EU
  • 1.1 Overview of basic economic concepts
  • 1.2. Economic changes of the EU and Europe
  • 1.3. Economic and social changes
• Unit 2- Globalization and integration: Challenges and opportunities
  • 2.1 What is globalization?
  • 2.2. International trade
  • 2.3. Multinational enterprises
  • 2.4. Migration
  • 2.5 Challenges of globalization
  • 2.6. Economic Integration
  • 2.7. The European Union
  • 2.8. Challenges of the European Union
• Unit 3- Integration and cohesion in the EU:
  • 3.1.Economic and Political Integration, Cohesion: Some Definitions.
  • 3.2.Economic and Political Integration, Cohesion: Interdependences.
  • 3.3.Economic Convergence: Definition and Typology.
  • 3.4.Evidence on Economic Convergence on the EU: The EU as a "Convergence Machine".
  • 3.5.Evidence on Income Convergence on the EU.
  • 3.6.The EU Cohesion Policy.
• Unit 4- Policies and Challenges in the EU
  • 4.1.Employment Challenges in the EU: The European Integration Project and the Social Policy.
  • 4.2.Employment Challenges in the EU: Actual EU Policies.
  • 4.3.Employment Challenges in the EU: Segmentation and Activation.
  • 4.4.Employment Challenges in the EU: Segmentation and Activation.

PRACTICAL SYLLABUS

• Seminars/Workshops
• Essays/Presentations about some topics of the course
• In class activities in the IT room

• Alcidi, C. (2019). Economic integration and income convergence in the EU. Intereconomics, 54(1), 5-11.
• Bachtler, J. (2023). Cohesion Policy—Where Has It Come From? Where Is It Going?.
• Crouch, C. (2015). European employment and labour market policy. In The search for Europe: Contrasting approaches (pp. 128-149). BBVA.
• Heidenreich, M. (2022). Territorial and Social Inequalities in Europe: Challenges of European Integration. Springer Nature.
• Musiałkowska, I., Idczak, P., & Potluka, O. (2020). Successes & failures in EU cohesion policy: An introduction to EU cohesion policy in Eastern, Central, and Southern Europe. In Successes & Failures in EU Cohesion Policy: An Introduction to EU cohesion policy in Eastern, Central, and Southern Europe. De Gruyter.
• Rodrik, D. (2011). The globalization paradox: Democracy and the future of the world economy. WW Norton & Company

• Carril-Caccia, F. & Pavlova, E. (2018). Foreign direct investment and its drivers: a global and EU perspective, ECB Economic, Issue 4, pp. 60-78.
• Melitz, M., Krugman, P., & Obstfeld. (2021) International Economics: Theory and Policy. 12th Edition. Pearson. 
• Henriques, C., & Viseu, C. (2023). EU Cohesion Policy Implementation-Evaluation Challenges and Opportunities: The 1st International Conference on Evaluating Challenges in the Implementation of EU Cohesion Policy (EvEUCoP 2022), Coimbra, 2022.

    European Commission: https://commission.europa.eu/index_en

   European Parliament: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/portal/en

   European Central Bank: https://www.ecb.europa.eu/home/html/index.en.html

   Eurostat: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat

Article 17 of the UGR Assessment Policy and Regulations establishes that the ordinary assessment session (convocatoria ordinaria) will preferably be based on the continuous assessment of students, except for those who have been granted the right to a single final assessment (evaluación única final), which is an assessment method that only takes a final exam into account.

According to the Rules of assessment and grading of the students of the University of Granada (latest modification approved by the Governing Board on 26th October 2016), the assessment of students’ academic performance will reflect public, objective and impartial criteria, and will preferably be continuous and ongoing.

Evaluation system:

• The evaluation system preferably consists in an ongoing evaluation. Details of the ongoing evaluation are going to be provided by the professors in the first class. The ongoing evaluation may consist of assistance, in class activities, essays, presentations, quizzes or coursework.
• Students that follow the final assessment method (evaluación única final) are going to take a final exam that represents the 100% of their final mark. This exam is multiple choice, in which three incorrect answers subtract one correct answer, while blank answers neither add nor subtract points. The exam is going to be based on the theoretical and practical content that have been presented during the course.

Article 19 of the UGR Assessment Policy and Regulations establishes that students who have not passed a course in the ordinary assessment session (convocatoria ordinaria) will have access to an extraordinary assessment session (convocatoria extraordinaria). All students may take part in this extraordinary assessment session, regardless of whether or not they have followed continuous assessment activities. In this way, students who have not carried out continuous assessment activities will have the opportunity to obtain 100% of their mark by means of an exam and/or assignment.

• The extraordinary assessment session is an exam that represents 100% of student’s mark. This exam is multiple choice, in which three incorrect answers subtract one correct answer, while blank answers neither add nor subtract points. The exam is going to be based on the theoretical and practical content that have been presented during the course.

Article 8 of the UGR Assessment Policy and Regulations establishes that students who are unable to follow continuous assessment methods due to justifiable reasons shall have recourse to a single final assessment (evaluación única final), which is an assessment method that only takes a final exam into account.

In order to opt for a single final assessment (evaluación única final), students must send a request, using the corresponding online procedure, to the coordinator of the master’s programme, in the first two weeks of the course or in the two weeks following their enrolment (if the enrolment has taken place after the classes have already begun). The coordinator will communicate this information to the relevant teaching staff members, citing and verifying the reasons why the student is unable to follow the continuous assessment system.

In this case, the assessment will comprise:

• Multiple choice final examen described above.