The teaching module “Liberalization, Privatization and European Integration” is co-funded by the Erasmus+Programme of the European Union. The teaching module consists of two courses: (1) Liberalization of Markets and European Integration and (2) Privatization of Firms and Banks and European Integration. The participation in the first course is not a prerequisite for participation in the second course.

The course focuses on economic liberalization and European integration with a special emphasis on countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). The introductory part of the course gives an overview over state regulation, soft budget constraint syndrome and economic performance in CEE before 1990 to present background on transition. The basic part covers the transition to a market economy since 1990 focusing on: (i) the EU Enlargement policy and other determinants of the liberalization of markets and decreasing the size of the state; (ii) the effects of economic liberalization and size of the state on economic performance; (iii) recent challenges of the global financial crisis on the role of financial deregulation and liberalization on economic performance in Eastern Europe.

The course enables students to understand (1) the key economic problems of the state regulation in the socialist system, (2) the policies (EU Enlargement, “Washington Consensus”) for liberalization of markets and decreasing the size of the state, (3) the convergence (divergence) patterns of economic liberalization in the New EU Member States, (4) the effects of these patterns on economic growth and development, (5) the new challenges of the global financial crisis on the role of financial liberalization on economic performance in CEE and other issues of the design of deregulation and liberalization policies. 

The course shall discuss variety of theories, empirical evidence and policy debates. It includes: (i) lectures and (ii) presentations by the students of papers on the topics covered in the course. Students are expected to participate in the seminars, every student must make a presentation on one of the seminar topics and contribute to the seminar discussion. The design of presentations (topics, schedule, form and the like) will be specified after the first course meeting.