Since the 1990s, Europe's economies have been facing new challenges: the single market programme, the collapse of the Berlin wall and Eastward enlargement, and monetary unification. Building on the influential Varieties of Capitalism perspective, this book analyzes these developments and their effects on European economies and firms.

PART 1: VARIETIES OF CAPITALISM: TAKING STOCK; PART 2: MACRO-ADJUSTMENT AND VARIETIES OF CAPITALISM; PART 3: THE SINGLE MARKET, REGULATION, AND FIRMS; PART 4: LABOUR MARKET AND WELFARE STATE ADJUSTMENT; PART 5: CAPITALISM GOES EAST

Critically analyzes developments in European Political Economy and their effects on the continental European economies Leading political economists from Europe and the US consider how the influential 'Varieties of Capitalism' approach can help us understand these challenges The editors, Peter Hall, and David Soskice debate the criticisms levelled at the 'Varieties of Capitalism' approach

Bob Hancké is a Reader in European Political Economy at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Previous appointments were at the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin, at the J.F. Kennedy School and the Center for European Studies at Harvard University, as a Jean Monnet Fellow at the EUI in Florence, and as a doctoral researcher at MIT. He wrote Large Firms and Institutional Change (Oxford University Press 2002), and participated in the project that led to Varieties of Capitalism¸edited by Peter Hall and David Soskice (Oxford University Press 2001). His research interests are the political economy of advanced capitalist societies, the relation between institutions and macro-economic policy, and labour relations. Martin Rhodes is a Professor of Comparative Political Economy, Graduate School of International Studies, University of Denver, Colorado. Until December 2005, he was Professor of Public Policy in the Department of Social and Political Science at the European University Institute in Florence. He has written widely on issues of comparative European political economy, including social pacts and welfare and labour market reform, and is currently directing a project on pensions systems and pension reforms in Europe. He is the scientific director of the European research consortium on 'New Modes of Governance' and within that consortium is running a new project on social pacts and tripartism in western and eastern Europe with Jelle Visser of the University of Amsterdam. Mark Thatcher is a Reader in Public Administration and Public Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Balliol College Oxford, then qualified as a Barrister, and took his doctorate at Nuffield College, Oxford. He spent five years researching and lecturing in Paris (Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications, Paris III- Sorbonne Nouvelle, Sciences-Po Paris), before joining LSE in 1995. He has been a Fellow at the Robert Schuman Centre, European University Institute, Florence. His research interests are Comparative Public Policy and Regulation in Europe Telecommunications and other utilities Independent Regulatory Agencies.

Critically analyzes developments in European Political Economy and their effects on the continental European economies Leading political economists from Europe and the US consider how the influential 'Varieties of Capitalism' approach can help us understand these challenges The editors, Peter Hall, and David Soskice debate the criticisms levelled at the 'Varieties of Capitalism' approach