1) Preliminaries

This section reviews knowledge about two things that we will wish to relate. Our knowledge about recent European economic history and our knowledge about monetary economics. Slides: Slides for first class (powerpoint) To start thinking about monetary economics, read David Laidler's article and a text about Danish monetary policy published by Danmarks Nationalbank. Laidler, David (1999) The Exchange Rate Regime and Canada's Monetary Order, Bank of Canada working paper Danmarks Nationalbank (2003) Monetary Policy in Denmark Links to find readings 1 and 2 are http://www.bankofcanada.ca http://www.nationalbanken.dk/ Questions What types of monetary policy can a central bank choose? What is Canada's monetary policy? Does David Laidler think that Canada's monetary policy should be changed? Is Denmark's monetary policy similar to Canada? Why (not)? Answer these questions by reading 1 and 2 To start thinking about European Economic History. Read chapter 1 of Baldwin and Wyplosz (2004) Comment on the following propositions European integration has always been driven by political factors. What are three major increases in European economic integration? The 2004 enlargement is likely to greatly magnify the pro-EU membership forces in the nations further east and west the textbook webpage is at http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0077103947/information_center_view0/