Can Italy and Germany thrive within the confines of the common currency, or do they display two fundamentally incompatible models? This book examines this question by means of detailed comparisons in the fields of labour market policies, welfare provisions and financial and economic management.

Ton Notermans is Senior Lecturer of Political Economy at the Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia. He taught at the Universities of Trento, Italy; Innsbruck, Austria; Pusan National University, Korea and the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy. His research interests focus mainly on the history and political economy of monetary unions.

Simona Piattoni is Professor of Political Science at the University of Trento, Italy. She taught at the Universities of Tromsø and Agder, Norway and Innsbruck, Austria, and is currently affiliated with the ARENA European Centre at the University of Oslo, Norway. Her research interests include economic development, clientelism, cohesion policy, multilevel governance, and European democracy.

Preface Introduction: Italy and Germany - Incompatible Varieties of Europe? 1. Italy and Germany: Incompatible Varieties of Europe or Dissimilar Twins? 2. Competitiveness Revisited: Labour Costs, Financial Flows and the Case of Italy 3. German Labour Market Resilience in Times of Crisis: Revealing Coordination Mechanisms in the Social Market Economy 4. Varieties of Private Household Debt in Europe: Incompatibility of Culturally Diverse Lending Regimes Between Germany and Italy? 5. German and Italian Pensions: Similar Roots, Different Reform Paths, Comparable Trajectories? 6. The Financial Consequences of Export- led Growth in Germany and Italy 7. Safe and Risky Sovereigns in the Euro Area Capital Market: Financial Drivers of Fiscal Policies in Germany and Italy