National trajectories and economic and monetary integration of small industrialized countries in Europe.

Summary This thesis examines the extent to which the national trajectories of small industrialized countries (SICs) are affected by European economic and monetary integration. Starting from the study of the structural specificities of each country, the aim is to study the compatibility of the EMU between countries with different economic structures. In fact, the adoption of the single currency places the structural differences of economies at the center of economic policy concerns. Since adjustment mechanisms are at the heart of the problem, we shall see how abandoning the exchange rate as a vector of macroeconomic regulation may or may not be costly for the countries of the euro zone, and whether wage flexibility may or may not be an effective substitute. The first chapter presents the wage relationship of the IPPs through the degree of institutionalization, wage relations, wage formation and income policy. The mode of international insertion is discussed in a second chapter with respect to trade flows and specialization. The study of cost competitiveness and non cost competitiveness constitutes the core of the third chapter. It proposes an approach based on the evolution of export prices, wage costs in evolution and in level, and total costs in level. The fourth chapter deals with the exchange rate regime and proposes an evaluation of equilibrium exchange rates. The single market, economic integration and foreign direct investment are the subject of the fifth chapter. Finally, the last chapter deals with the issues of wage flexibility and policy coordination in a monetary union. We show to what extent EMU leads to the convergence of economies towards a standard configuration of structural forms and economic policy models and how it calls into question national specificities.