How integrated is the world economy? |
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Authors: | Harry P Bowen Haris Munandar Jean-Marie Viaene |
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Institution: | (1) McColl School of Business, Queens University of Charlotte, 1900 Selwyn Avenue, Charlotte, NC 28274, USA;(2) Central Bank of Indonesia and University of Indonesia, Jl. M.H. Thamrin No. 2, Jakarta, 10350, Indonesia;(3) Erasmus University Rotterdam, Tinbergen Institute and CESifo, P.O. Box 1738, 3000 DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands |
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Abstract: | This paper develops a methodology to measure the degree of economic integration between nations that are members of an integrated
area. We show that a fully integrated economic area (IEA) is characterized by three properties regarding the distribution
of member shares of total IEA output and total IEA stocks of physical and human capital. We then show that the expected distribution
of member shares within a fully IEA is a harmonic series, with the share distribution depending only on the number of IEA
members. This property is then used to develop a composite indicator of the degree of economic integration within an IEA that
indicates the distance between the theoretical and actual distribution of shares: the closer is the actual distribution to
the expected distribution, the greater the degree of integration. We empirically compute our degree of integration for US
states, and alternative regional trading agreements (e.g., EU countries, MERCOSUR, Bangkok Agreement, etc.) and a “world”
comprising 64 countries. |
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