In the present paper we focus on the two best organised ancient Greek federations the Achaean and the Aetolian. Both were democratic ones. We analyse their institutional structure, decision making bodies, and finances. Then, we compare them to the present European Union (EU) and point out...

Over the last decade, European Union members have experienced a dramatic increase in imports. This increase was accompanied by a strong growth in the number of imported goods and trading partners, indicating positive welfare gains for consumers via an extended set of consumption possibilities,...

In the present paper we analyse the emergence of the first federations in history, taking as an example the Achaean one. We analyse its structure decision making, institutions and finances. Then, we compare it to the present European Union and point out similarities and differences. Lastly, we...

In this paper, we apply the methodology developed by Feenstra (1994) and Broda and Weinstein (2006) to estimate the gains from imported variety for the 27 countries of the European Union using Eurostat data from the period of 1999 to 2008. Our results show that newer and smaller member states...