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A Theory of Economic Unions

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  • Gino Gancia
  • Giacomo A.M. Ponzetto
  • Jaume Ventura

Abstract

After decades of successful growth, economic unions have recently become the focus of heightened political controversy. We argue that this is partly due to the growth of trade between countries that are increasingly dissimilar. We develop a theoretical framework to study the effects on trade, income distribution and welfare of economic unions that differ in size ad scope. Our model shows that political support for international unions can grow with their breadth and depth as long as member countries are sufficiently similar. However, differences in economic size and factor endowments can trigger disagreement over the value of unions between and within countries. The model is consistent with same salient features of the process of European integration and statistical evidence from survey data.

Suggested Citation

  • Gino Gancia & Giacomo A.M. Ponzetto & Jaume Ventura, 2019. "A Theory of Economic Unions," Working Papers 1110, Barcelona School of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:bge:wpaper:1110
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    3. Gracia-Lázaro, Carlos & Dercole, Fabio & Moreno, Yamir, 2022. "Dynamics of economic unions: An agent-based model to investigate the economic and social drivers of withdrawals," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    4. Kirtchik, Olessia & Boldyrev, Ivan, 2024. "“Rise And Fall” Of The Walrasian Program In Economics: A Social And Intellectual Dynamics Of The General Equilibrium Theory," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, vol. 46(1), pages 1-26, March.
    5. Rima Rubčinskaitė & Laimutė Urbšienė, 2024. "What matters for the economic synchronization of the Baltic States," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 51(3), pages 645-678, August.
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    8. Eisei Ohtaki, 2023. "Optimality in an OLG model with nonsmooth preferences," International Journal of Economic Theory, The International Society for Economic Theory, vol. 19(3), pages 611-659, September.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    economic unions; non-tariff barriers; European integration;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F15 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Economic Integration
    • F55 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy - - - International Institutional Arrangements
    • F62 - International Economics - - Economic Impacts of Globalization - - - Macroeconomic Impacts
    • H77 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - Intergovernmental Relations; Federalism
    • D71 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Social Choice; Clubs; Committees; Associations
    • D78 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Positive Analysis of Policy Formulation and Implementation

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