This book addresses three big economic challenges from a dynamic perspective: European integration, economic growth, and global climate change. In the light of the recent crises of the European Union (EU), the first part of the book deals with challenges to the real, monetary and fiscal integration of the EU and required institutional adjustments. The second part of the book addresses fundamental challenges of advanced market economies like economic growth and changes of technologies. The final part focuses on the global challenge of climate change from an economic perspective and discusses policy strategies for a successful mitigation of climate change.

Birgit Bednar-Friedl is Associate Professor at the Department of Economics, University of Graz, and the Wegener Center for Climate and Global Change. Her current research interests span the economics of climate change, resource and energy economics, and international economics. Her recent research covers several aspects of unilateral and multilateral climate policy, international burden sharing in climate policy, the macroeconomic costs of climate change impacts on various fields such as agriculture, electricity, tourism and transport, and sustainable harvesting of renewable resources.

Joern Kleinert is Professor of International Economics at University of Graz. He works on international trade, financial flows, multinational firms and global imbalance. Currently he focuses on the consequences of the global crisis on the member countries of the European currency union.

Introduction.- Real, Monetary and Fiscal Integration in the European Union: A Prototype Model of European Integration - The Case of Austria.- Trade Agreements and Regional Disparities.- Strategic Macroeconomic Policies in a Monetary Union.- Determinants of Maximum Sustainable Government Debt.- The Long Italian Stagnation and the Welfare Effects of Outsourcing.- Economic Growth, Technological Change, and Climate Policy: Status, Wealth Distribution, and Endogenous Economic Growth.- Technological Change in Information and Communication - Consequences for Science.- Elements of the Economics of the Very-Long Term - Functionalities, Structures, Mechanisms and Institutions.- Is There a First-Mover Advantage in the International Climate Policy?- Environmental Policy in an Open Economy: Refocusing Climate Policy to Address International Trade Spillover.