We examine the consequences of increased economic integration between nations within a region. We adopt Krugman’s economic-geography model in which demand linkages can generate agglomeration of manufacturing activity. Manufacturing labour is assumed to be imperfectly mobile between countries....

This paper argues that the application of the `2% rule' to the case of Eastern Germany, which implies convergence in three decades or more, is overly pessimistic. First, it ignores discrete improvements in initial conditions related to the transition, which have been significant to date. Because...

This paper develops a theory of the endogenous formation of a common market in a three-country, two-factor political economy model. In the status quo, Home and Foreign implement non-discriminatory policies towards international factor flows, as to maximize the domestic median voter's welfare....

We consider a Heckscher-Ohlin model in which goods and factors of production can be traded, but trade involves transactions costs. Goods trade alone will not equalize factor prices, so there is an incentive for trade in factors of production. Whether goods or factors are traded depends on...

We return to a familiar topic in international trade, comparative advantage, introducing it into a model of economic geography. We provide a clear counterexample to the familiar result that trade liberalization leads to increased industrial concentration. Instead, lower trade costs may lead to a...

In models of economic geography, plant-level scale economies and trade costs create incentives for spatial agglomeration of production into a manufacturing core and agricultural periphery, creating regional income differentials. We examine tax competition between national governments to...

Economic integration and free factor mobility may be expected to enhance the growth performance of a united Europe. Simple models of integration among independent, endogenously-growing economic entities suggest that factor mobility may deepen rather than reduce regional differences in economic...

Trade theorists have come to understand that their theory is ambiguous on the question: are trade and factor flows substitutes? While this sounds like an open invitation for empirical research, hardly any serious econometric work has appeared in the literature. This paper uses history to fill...

An optimum currency area is an economic unit composed of regions affected symmetrically by disturbances and between which labour and other factors of production flow freely. The symmetrical nature of disturbances and the high degree of factor mobility make it optimal to forsake nominal exchange...

This paper presents a dynamic, two-region general equilibrium model in which inter-regional production and trade patterns are endogenously determined. Localized growth stems from geographical concentration of an industrial sector exhibiting permanent productivity increases. Geographical...