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Coming together or drifting apart: The case for a European investment agenda
Benink,Harald Murawski,Sara Sanders,Mark
Benink,Harald
Murawski,Sara
Sanders,Mark
Abstract
In 1976, Lucas formulated his famous Critique that it is naïve to try to predict the effects of a change in economic policy entirely based on relationships observed in historical data. He basically argued that, as policies change, so will these relationships. In close analogy the Clemens’ Critique can be stated as, it is naïve to assume your analysis will convince Clemens Kool on the first read. The inevitable “I am not convinced” is the phrase that implies you will need to do a better job of making your case. Therefore, in honor of Clemens Kool, we decided to take a report that was prepared by Sara and commented by Clemens, attempting to convince him of the arguments in a second try. We leave it to the reader (Clemens, first and foremost) to pass judgement on our success. This chapter is about convergence in the European Union and more specifically the European Monetary Union (EMU), established with the Treaty of Maastricht. Convergence had a central role in the establishment of the EMU. The 1989 Delors-report argued that a monetary union requires a sufficient degree of convergence of economic performance and (hence) economic policies. It states that “[p]arallel advancement in economic and monetary integration would be indispensable in order to avoid imbalances which could cause economic strains and loss of political support 18 for developing the Community further into an economic and monetary union.”2 The Maastricht Treaty (1992) is even more explicit, arguing that “[t]he Community shall have as its task...a high degree of convergence of economic performance.”3 But what kind of convergence is meant? And which mechanisms in the design of the EMU were thought, hoped or believed to deliver such convergence?
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Date
2025
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Maastricht University Press
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Citation
Benink, H, Murawski, S & Sanders, M 2025, Coming together or drifting apart: The case for a European investment agenda. in J Bos & M Sanders (eds), Convincing Economics: Essays in Honour of Prof. Dr. Clemens Kool. Maastricht University Press, Maastricht, pp. 17-44. https://doi.org/10.26481/mup.2501.03
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info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess