Curricular Unit:Code:
Political Economy777EPOL
Year:Level:Course:Credits:
2UndergraduatePolitical Science and International Relations6 ects
Learning Period:Language of Instruction:Total Hours:
Portuguese/English78
Learning Outcomes of the Curricular Unit:
(i) To integrate methods, concepts, theories and knowledge concerning political economy and economic policy, with an emphasis on the Eurozone crisis and reform and the challenges that emerged from the COVID-19 pandemics;
(ii) To develop interactive skills allowing students to participate in debates on contemporary political-economic events;
(iii) To select methods of information management that guide students in selected readings on the Eurozone crisis and reform;
(iv) To improve oral and written communication skills;
(vi) To develop critical analysis of the Eurozone crisis and reform.
Syllabus:
Chapter I – Theoretical framework: the position of economics within social sciences
Chapter II – Foundations of European monetary integration
Chapter III – The origins and the evolution of the Eurozone crisis
Chapter IV – Political Economy of the crisis and the reform of the Eurozone (I): the orthodox approach
Chapter V – Political Economy of the crisis and the reform of the Eurozone (II): the heterodox approach
Chapter VI – Economic and Monetary Union and the COVID-19 pandemics.
Demonstration of the Syllabus Coherence with the Curricular Unit's Objectives:
Chapter I – Discussion about the position of economics within the realm of social sciences and the manifold links with other social sciences.
Chapter II – Foundations and functioning of Economic and Monetary Union.
Chapter III – Events that gave rise to the Eurozone crisis (financial crisis, economic crisis, sovereign debt crisis), providing students with factors that influenced the Eurozone crisis.
Chapter IV – Students’ awareness of the orthodox approach to the crisis and the reform of the Eurozone (at the level of economics and political-economic decision-making).
Chapter V – Students’ awareness of the heterodox approach to the crisis and the reform of the Eurozone (at the level of the alternative, non-orthodox causality of events that triggered the crisis as well as on alternatives remedies to it).
Chapter VI – Understanding and discussion of Covid-19 economic implications and awareness of the mechanisms devised by the European Union to address the COVID-19 pandemics crisis.
Teaching Methodologies (Including Evaluation):
Teaching methodology includes lecturing, research, readings and discussion of European integration contemporary issues, as well as critical reflection. Assessment is continuous and based on two written tests (50% coefficient each).
Demonstration of the Coherence between the Teaching Methodologies and the Learning Outcomes:
Theoretical exposition of the contents the scientific area; discussions in the classroom; integration of methods, concepts, theories and knowledge in the scientific area; developing interactive competences in the classroom; demonstration of oral and written communication skills of expert assessment contents; selection of methods of information management.
Reading:
Acocella, Nicola (2020), The European Monetary Union: Europe at the Crossroads, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
De Grauwe, P. (2020), Economics of Monetary Union, 13.ª ed., Oxford University Press.
Gonçalves, J. R. (2019). O Euro: Balanço e Perspetivas, Coimbra: Almedina.
Mody, A. (2018), Euro Tragedy: A Drama in Nine Acts, Oxford University Press.
Morson, G. S. and Schapiro, M. (2018), Cents and Sensibility: What Economics Can Learn from the Humanities, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Randall Henning, C. (2017), Tangled Governance: International Regime Complexity, the Troika, and the Euro Crisis, Oxford University Press.
Raworth, K. (2017), Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist, Penguin.
Stiglitz, J. E. (2016), The Euro: How a Common Currency Threatens the Future of Europe, W. W. Norton.
Vila Maior, P. e Camisão, I. (2021), The Pandemic Crisis and the European Union: COVID-19 and Crisis Management, London: Routledge.