A theory of economic unions

Gino Gancia, Giacomo Ponzetto and Jaume Ventura ()
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Jaume Ventura: https://www.upf.edu/web/econ/faculty/-/asset_publisher/6aWmmXf28uXT/persona/id/3418977

Economics Working Papers from Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra

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 e§ects on trade, income distribution and welfare of economic unions that di§er in size and scope. Our model shows that political support for international unions can grow with their breadth and depth as long as member countries are su¢ ciently similar. However, di§erences in economic size and factor endowments can trigger disagreement over the value of unions between and within countries. The model is consistent with some salient features of the process of European integration and statistical evidence from survey data.

Keywords: Economic unions; non-tariff barriers; European intergation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D71 D78 F15 F55 F62 H77 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-int
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Related works:
Journal Article: A theory of economic unions (2020)
Working Paper: A Theory of Economic Unions (2019)
Working Paper: A Theory of Economic Unions (2019)
Working Paper: A Theory of Economic Unions (2019)
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