Examining the European economy from a historical perspective
Is the single European market in people, goods, money and ideas a new development? Or are we merely reassembling something that existed a century ago? Appropriately, the European Science Foundation is supporting the researchers who aim to find out. GlobalEuroNet, the Globalizing Europe Economic History Network, runs from 2006 to 2010. It was set up to promote scientific cooperation among historians and economists in the reconstruction of data sets for European economies in the past century. But it will also answer key questions about European economic integration and interdependence, both past and present. Economic history works on a long timescale and is only now getting to grips with issues such as the end of communism in Eastern Europe. But as Battilossi sees it, the long view has a lot to offer leaders in these countries. "When they came into existence after the First World War,» he says, «these countries were economically protectionist and institutionally weak. They were politically volatile, had unstable governments and were prone to high inflation. Today, some of these countries have started joining in with globalization but still have weak governments and institutions, and may give in to the temptation of backlashing against globalization. Perhaps our comparative research will produce some economic history that they can learn from".
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