This research area is centred on the analysis of globalization and its impact on Europe and Italy.
We look not only at economic and financial developments, but also at social, political and strategic evolutions. Markets and countries are taken into account, as well as supranational and international organizations, such as the EU, the WTO, the IMF, etc. and their changing roles.
The impact of the global economic and financial crisis is assessed, and the lasting changes it will cause in the European and Italian economic and social setting. The necessity of new paradigms of explanation is emphasized, particularly concerning the relationship between the State and the markets, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, the State and the international organizations and actors.
A variety of analytical tools is used, based on cross-national and diachronic comparisons. Quantitative as well as qualitative analyses are conducted, trying to avoid the “trap” of sheer formal modelling, and bearing in mind the lessons of the great Italian school of political economists, such as Luigi Einaudi.