European integration and the functioning of product markets

Abstract:
This work presents an in-depth analysis of the impact which European economic integration has had on product market functioning and how that has led to changed macroeconomic outcomes.

The work is organised over eight chapters divided into two parts, Microeconomic Issues and Macroeconomic Issues. The first chapter presents an overview and the framework of the study. Chapter two looks at market integration, price transparency and price convergence, and offers analysis of European integration impacting upon price levels and price dispersal. Chapter three employs market share analysis to show how leading firms in the European Union have responded to the larger and more integrated market with a return to their core business. The same market share analysis is used in chapter four, which examines the impact of such major strategic reactions upon industrial concentration and industry performance. The concentration of manufacturing activity and country specialisation are studied in chapter five.

Part two opens with chapter six looking at the macroeconomic impact of the product market reforms since the early 1990s. Chapter seven explores industry exposure to competition from the dollar zone and its trade elasticity to exchange rate fluctuations to assess the likely impact of euro/dollar exchange rate fluctuations on European manufacturing. Changes in the conditions of competition and industrial organisation arising from the product market integration are examined in chapter eight to assess the varying levels of EU Member States’ exposure to asymmetric shocks originating from euro/dollar fluctuations.

The work will interest scholars, students and researchers engaged in European studies and economics as well as international institutions and NGOs.

Contents:
1. Product Market Integration in the EU: An Overview

Part I: Microeconomic Issues
2. The Impact of a Single Currency in Europe on Product Markets: Theory and Evidence
3. Changes in the Industrial and Geographical Diversification of Leading Firms in European Manufacturing
4. Industrial Concentration, Market Integration and Efficiency in the European Union
5. The Location of European Industry

Part II: Macroeconomic Issues
6. Product Market Reforms and Macroeconomic Performance in the European Union
7. The Sensitivity of European Sectors to Exchange Rate Fluctuations
8. Product Market Integration and EU Exposure to Euro/Dollar Fluctuations