Conceptual and Causal Relationships in the Theory of Economic Integration in the Twentieth Century

Abstract

My first proposition is that the theory of interregional and international trade and the theory of interregional and international economic integration are co-extensive or, to state it more boldly, are concerned with the same conceptual and causal relationships, though perhaps with some minor shifts in emphasis. I shall begin with a few comments on the term ‘economic integration’.

Prefatory note: I am indebted to scores of economists who have in countless articles and books presented their thoughts on the subject of this paper. The sources from which I have drawn most, perhaps excessively, are my own writings. I mention my Harms-Prize Lecture on ‘Integrationshemmende Integrationspolitik’ in Bernhard-Harms Vorlesungen 5/6 (Kiel: Institut für Weltwirtschaft, 1974); my Presidential Address at the Fourth World Congress of the International Economic Association, held in Budapest in 1974, on ‘A History of Thought on Economic Integration’, to be published in Economic Integration: Worldwide, Regional, Sectoral (London: Macmillan, 1976); and finally my book A History of Thought on Economic Integration (Macmillan, 1977).