1,721,097 research outputs found
International Integration and Societal Progress : A Critical Review of Globalisation Indicators
No full textEvaluating accession decisions in customs unions: a dynamic machine learning approach
Get PDFAbstract Previous work in the literature on regional economic integration has proposed the use of machine learning algorithms to evaluate the composition of customs unions, specifically, to estimate the degree to which customs unions match “natural markets” arising from trade flow data or appear to be driven by other factors such as political considerations. This paper expands upon the static approaches used in previous studies to develop a dynamic framework that allows to evaluate not only the composition of customs unions at a given point in time, but also changes in the composition over time resulting from accessions of new member states. We then apply the dynamic algorithm to evaluate the evolution of the global landscape of customs unions using data on bilateral trade flows of 200 countries from 1958 to 2018. A key finding is that there is considerable variation across different accession rounds of the European Union as to the extent to which these are aligned with the structure of “natural markets,” with some accession rounds following more strongly a commercial logic than others. Similar results are also found for other customs unions in the world, complementing the insights obtained from static analyses.Science Foundation Ireland 501100001602Georg-August-Universität Göttingen 50110000338
The World is not Flat: Implications for the Construction of Globalization Indicators
No full textStarting from the working hypothesis that distance, proximity or, in general, spatiality is still relevant for understanding the functioning of the global social, political and economic system, the aim of this paper is to explore the implications thereof for the construction of globalisation indicators. Different proposals to construct globalisation indicators are critically reviewed, with special attention to aspects of spatiality. We investigate the underlying conceptual frameworks and the question whether indicators are built on broader or narrower concepts of international integration (society versus economy, regional versus global integration, etc.), and to the coherence between the measurement needs, on the one hand, and the selection of the variables and indicators, on the other.
The most important issue addressed in this article is how to define and measure correctly the spatial reach of globalisation, distinguishing it from other processes of international integration, including regionalism
On the Optimal Size and Composition of Customs Unions: An Evolutionary Approach
No full textAbstract
Customs unions enable countries to freely access each other’s markets, which is thought to increase intra-regional trade and economic growth. However, accession to a customs union also comes with the condition that all members need to consent to a common external trade policy. Especially if countries feature different economic structures, this may act as a force against the creation of large customs unions. In this paper, we propose a new mathematical approach to model the optimal size and composition of customs unions in the form of a bi-objective combinatorial non-linear problem. We also use a multi-objective evolutionary algorithm (NSGA-II) to search for the best (non-dominated) configurations using data on the trade flows and economic characteristics of 200 countries. Our algorithm identifies 445 different configurations that are strictly preferable, from a global perspective, to the real-world landscape of customs unions. However, many of these non-dominated configurations have the feature that they improve outcomes for the world as a whole, on average, but not for all individual countries. The best configurations tend to favour the creation of a few large customs unions and several smaller ones.Science Foundation Ireland 501100001602National University Ireland, Galwa
Regional Organizations. A multidimensional approach to policy scope
No full textIn this chapter, regional organizations (ROs) are portrayed with regard to their policy scope. Treating ROs as formal institutions based on formal treaties and agreements, the chapter describes how policy scopes differ across ROs, and also introduces a multidimensional approach to capture policy areas that regularly appear as bundles among ROs. Thus, ROs vary in their policy scope, but partially converge in their ways of combining certain policy areas. Starting with the observation of an increase in RO establishment after 1990, the chapter reviews some of the most important approaches to understanding and explaining regionalism and regional organizations. The chapter identifies regional integration studies, comparative regionalism studies, and International Political Economy (IPE) studies as three central strands that partially vary in their conceptualization of ROs. While regional integration studies predominantly focus on individual regions or ROs, comparative regionalism studies apply broader perspectives that often result in large-N accounts of ROs across the globe. IPE studies focus on (economic) global relationships as drivers or outcomes of regional integration. The perspective that this chapter eventually takes merges the three approaches by comparing a large sample of ROs with regard to their policy areas and shows how individual ROs and groups of ROs include certain policy areas in their institutional design along the lines of two dimensions, which follow the larger aims of economic prosperity and conflict resolution. The analysis relies on data from the Comparative Regional Organizations Project (CROP) and applies an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to the number of existing ROs at three points in time. The findings show how the two dimensions of policy scope among ROs—economic prosperity and conflict resolution—vary over time, and the factor scores for each RO show how strongly the respective dimensions are formally represented by individual ROs
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