The European Union (EU) currently faces many challenges. The departure of the United Kingdom in early 2020 means that for the first time in its history, it lost rather than gained a member state. Several of its member states still struggle with the long-term consequences of the financial and economic crisis that started back in 2008. The economic impact of the Covid-19 crisis is likely to further strain the economies of the EU’s member states. The backlash to globalization that characterizes much of the developed world in the twenty-first century imposes limits on the EU’s ability to advance its trade policy agenda. Last but not least, Euroscepticism has taken hold across many EU member states, carried by populist parties that have seen their electoral fortunes improve over the past few years. It is against this background that this special issue advances research on the political economy of the EU. Political economy research investigates the interaction between politics and economics, that is, how political factors influence economic outcomes such as trade or economic growth and how economic outcomes affect politics. Both economists and political scientists contribute to this field of research, with the former mainly focusing on the impact of politics on economic outcomes, and the latter mainly interested in the effect of economic outcomes on politics. Economists, for example, ask: What are the economic gains from European integration and, specifically, from the EU customs union and EuropeanMonetary Union? To what extent are EU policies able to foster market efficiency and could some of these policies distort markets?What political economymechanisms are at work at European institutions? Political scientists studying the political economy of the EU address questions such as: How has the Euro crisis affected the process of European integration? Can the EU use its extensive trade ties with third countries to reach broader foreign policy goals such as the enforcement of labor rights or environmental regulation? To what extent can the distributional effects of European integration explain Euroscepticism? The Review of International Organizations https://doi.org/10.1007/s11558-020-09389-8

中文翻译：

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欧盟的政治经济


欧盟（EU）当前面临诸多挑战。英国于 2020 年初脱欧意味着其历史上第一次失去而不是获得了一个成员国。其几个成员国仍在努力应对 2008 年开始的金融和经济危机的长期后果。Covid-19 危机的经济影响可能会进一步给欧盟成员国的经济带来压力。二十一世纪许多发达国家普遍抵制全球化，这限制了欧盟推进其贸易政策议程的能力。最后但并非最不重要的一点是，欧洲怀疑主义在许多欧盟成员国中占据主导地位，由民粹主义政党主导，这些政党在过去几年中的选举命运有所改善。本期特刊正是在这一背景下推进了对欧盟政治经济学的研究。政治经济学研究研究政治与经济之间的相互作用，即政治因素如何影响贸易或经济增长等经济结果以及经济结果如何影响政治。经济学家和政治学家都对这一研究领域做出了贡献，前者主要关注政治对经济结果的影响，后者主要关注经济结果对政治的影响。例如，经济学家会问：欧洲一体化，特别是欧盟关税同盟和欧洲货币联盟的经济收益是什么？欧盟政策在多大程度上能够促进市场效率？其中一些政策是否会扭曲市场？欧洲机构中发挥着哪些政治经济机制？ 研究欧盟政治经济学的政治学家提出以下问题：欧元危机如何影响欧洲一体化进程？欧盟能否利用其与第三国的广泛贸易关系来实现更广泛的外交政策目标，例如执行劳工权利或环境监管？欧洲一体化的分配效应可以在多大程度上解释欧洲怀疑论？国际组织审查 https://doi.org/10。1007/s11558-020-09389-8