No abstract

The paper discusses the problem of the Southern European (SE) capitalism and its difficult path into the EMU (European Monetary Union), looking at the remote causes of the crisis that hit these economies. For this reason, we consider European countries as a set of asymmetrically integrated variety of capitalism. The institutional configuration chosen by Europe to aggregate the many varieties of capitalism not only reduced the political autonomy of the single states, but effectively hindered the specific coordination mechanism of Southern European (SE) capitalism which was importantly based on state intervention as a structural element and on inflationary policies. Despite the deep market-oriented reforms this change caused both structural and macroeconomic unbalances. The aim of the paper is to integrate some principles of the variety of capitalism and the dynamics of institutional change with some insights inspired by the work of Arrighi to supply a synthetic and ‘alternative’ perspective on the difficult role that Southern countries are experiencing in Europe

No abstract

GraftonBuilding (3-B2), Via Roentgen, 1-20136 Milan-Italy www.certet.unibocconi.it CERTeT was established at the end of 1995. It focuses on the following research areas: territorial economics (both regional and urban); transportation economics and the analysis of transport infrastructure (railways, highways, airways, waterways); the economics of tourism (the Centre organizes an advanced course on this subject); the evaluation of regional and local policies, paying specific attention to the use of EU structural funds; and the economics and management of water resources, and their role in local development. New Working Paper Series The New Working Paper Series circulates research in progress, policy notes, and discussions on economic issues falling within the competences of CERTeT. We host researchers working in "Regional Science" from inside Bocconi University as well as researchers belonging to the wide relational networks built up by CERTeT in its more than 20 years of activity.

Historically, Southern European countries have shared a 'semi-peripheral' model of capitalism which has been characterized by fundamental fragilities in the production system. The financialization induced by the EMU has rendered these economies more fragile and unstable. Liberalization and market reform policies have taken southern economies onto the path of a credit-based and passively-extroverted financialized economy that trap them into a low-cost-of-wages search of competitiveness. However, the lack of autonomy in macroeconomic policies has weakened Southern opportunity to react to the financial crisis. The 'internal devaluation' policies that followed have caused a deep and thorough process of de-industrialization. This has sped-up the centralization of the European economy that has its centre in a narrow space within Paris,