Changing Europe

Laura Pacey, Commissioning Editor for Palgrave Macmillan's scholarly Economics list, writes about how research is vital in a changing Europe.

Unless you live in a world devoid of media access, it is hard to escape the truth that Europe and the EU is in a period of great change and uncertainty. Research plays an integral part in navigating these new waters and forecasting the likely outcomes from a multitude of choices in political, social and economic spheres. It can offer new perspectives, provide clear evidence and guidelines, and support decision-making at both a private and public level. In an era of post-truth we need scholarship more than ever.

Topical issues such as Brexit invite great debate and I have found it particularly rewarding to commission titles that provide academic foundations to both sides of the argument. Philip Whyman’s The Economics of Brexit offers a cost-benefit analysis of the UK’s economic relationship with the EU, looking somewhat positively towards future trading relationships available to the UK. Paul J. J. Welfens offers a different picture in An Accidental Brexit, which raises serious questions about the future of transatlantic relations. Brexit is of course not just an economic concept, which Nazaré Cabral sensitively addresses in a highly interdisciplinary collection After Brexit: Consequences for the European Union. Publishing such a range of titles that focus on this single, yet complex issue, reminds me of all the ways that research is vital in a changing Europe.

While EU instability existed before the Great Recession, the impact of the financial crisis cannot be understated. Our series Studies in Economic Transition examines the transformation of economic systems and contributes to the understanding of major economic changes. Series Editor Horst Tomann offers a fully revised and updated edition of his 2007 title Monetary Integration in Europe, with a new focus on the EMU crisis. It is interesting to see how his reading of the issues ten years on has developed, in addition to policy recommendations.

As remains the case, the only thing that is certain in economics, is uncertainty.

We accept both quantitative and qualitative works and I am always interested in discussing new proposal ideas. Get in touch with me at laura.pacey@palgrave.com.