The Political Economy of European Integration

The most crucial arguments in favor of European integration cannot be quantified: some of these arguments are simply beyond economic analysis. Reducing pro and contra arguments in the integration debate to percentage points of gross national product or to tenths of percentage points of the consumer price index is shortsighted and misleading. Economic theory as well as empirical research must be careful to avoid this error. This does not, however, absolve economists from the duty to quantify what can be empirically documented and computed. In general, economists should contribute to a systematic, though largely non-quantitative, assessment of integration scenarios.