Towards a European Division of Labour: Do Europe’s Crises Highlight Structural Challenges to Sustainable Economic Growth in the Eurozone?

Abstract

The financial and economic crises of the last few years in many Southern Eurozone countries are generally studied individually, without reference to other such crises in the region. In this note, we argue that they may also be approached as symptoms of an underlying structural challenge facing the EU economy. In many ways the relationship between northern and southern Eurozone countries seems remarkably similar to typical economic centre–periphery relations, yet without the harmonizing role that a national government could play. The occurrence and combination of crises seems to be indicative of what one would expect from the adverse effects of centre–periphery relations among countries. Unfortunately, this would imply that the crises we are currently seeing are likely to continuously reoccur in the near future to the detriment of sustainable economic growth and political-economic stability in Europe.