Variety of institutional settings and socio-economic inequalities in the process of European integration
Reasons:
The process of European integration has been accompanied by structural and economic change which influenced income distribution and regional disparities in different directions. At national level, the variety of institutional settings also played a crucial role in shaping market inequalities and redistributive patterns. The crisis started in 2008 exacerbated income differences, which are endangering the whole EU project and the prospects for further integration. INEQ investigates the distributive effects of the integration process in relation to the variety of capitalistic models existing in the member states.
Objectives:
a) providing evidence on the institutional drivers of inequality in EU countries, in connection with the European integration process ; b) providing recommendations to policy makers in order to assure sustainability of the whole EU project; c) Enhancing the cooperation between European social scientists on the research topic so strictly related to integration.
Outputs:
Research: 3 lines of research performed by an international research team;
Deliverables: (a) 8 papers to be published in international journals; (b) a INEQ working paper series, with non-technical summary; (c) 1 edited book including a selection of papers; (d) a special issue in one international journal; (e) a dedicated website
Events: (a) 4 seminars at the institutions of the staff involved (Italy, UK, Germany, Russia);( b) 1 conference open to civil society.
Results:
(a) advancement of the scholars’ and civil society knowledge on the economic and institutional forces driving EU integration via inequality dynamics; (b) better collaboration between economists and policy makers.
Impacts:
(a) better understanding of the threats to EU integration deriving from institutions driven inequalities; (b) increased research opportunities for scholars at EU International level; (c) increased opportunities for policy makers to counteract the detrimental effect of excessive inequality.
