Italy in EMU The Challenges of Adjustment and Growth

A decade after the creation of EMU, Italy is still adjusting to the policy environment created by the euro. This book assesses Italy's experience in EMU, identifies the main challenges ahead, outlines key policy issues, and highlights how Italys experience offers lessons for other euro area members.

MARCO BUTI was educated at the Universities of Florence and Oxford and joined the European Commission in 1987. He was economic advisor to the Commission President until 2003; from September 2003 to August 2006 he was Director of Economies of Member States at the Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs where, as from 1 September 2006, he has been appointed Deputy Director General. He has been visiting professor at the Universit Libre de Bruxelles, the University of Florence and the European University Institute. He has published extensively on EMU, macroeconomic policies, welfare state reforms, European unemployment, including co-editing The Stability and Growth Pact: The Architecture of Fiscal Policy in EMU (with Anne Brunila and Daniele Franco) and The Behaviour of Fiscal Authorities: Stabilization, Growth and Institutions (with Jrgen von Hagen and Carlos Martinez-Mongay).