Doctorate Awarded to Camilla Locatelli

In December of last year, Camilla Locatelli successfully defended her dissertation at the University of Cologne. In “Ruling the Game or Gaming the Rules? The Politics of Technocratic Fiscal Surveillance in the EMU,” Locatelli examines changes in fiscal policy decision-making processes in the eurozone during a crisis-ridden decade. Her research sheds light on how the increased involvement of European institutions in national budgetary decision-making led to a new fiscal regime and how differently member states reacted, despite the same pressures to consolidate. Combining quantitative analyses of fiscal developments with comparative case studies, the study delivers important insights into the functioning of the European multilevel system of fiscal politics. Locatelli's supervisor was Martin Höpner, a research group leader at the MPIfG and adjunct professor at the University of Cologne. Camilla Locatelli was a doctoral researcher at the International Max Planck Research School on the Social and Political Constitution of the Economy (IMPRS-SPCE) from 2020 to 2024 and will remain at the MPIfG as a postdoc until the beginning of 2026.