International Trade and Finance Association 15th International Conference
THE FORMATION OF INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC UNIONS AND THEIR EXPANSION OR CONTRACTIONSadik Gokturk, St. Johns University This paper was presented at the 13th International Conference of the International Trade and Finance Association, Vaasa, Finland, May 28-31, 2003. Download the Paper (PDF format) - May 29, 2003 Tell a colleague about it. Printing Tips: Select 'print as image' in the Acrobat print dialog if you have trouble printing. ABSTRACT: This paper studies the necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of equilibrium for international economic unions, where decisions are made by the majority rule. While the existence of equilibrium for majority voting within nations is widely studied, customs union theory never has been studied from this angle. Moreover, in view of the fact that the findings of this paper are applicable to other situations, where decisions are made by majority rule, this paper may be regarded as being a fresh contribution to the intersection of Social Choice, Economics, and Positive Political Theory, for a new and an alternative set of minimal sufficiency conditions for the existence of equilibrium for majority rule are proposed. They are an angle (and a cardinality) condition, which are more transparent and less restrictive than the ones that are proposed so far. The paper also studies the question whether or not the expansion and/or contraction of the membership of the international economic community has a stabilizing or a destabilizing influence on the equilibrium of the union. Presented at the 13th International Conference, Vaasa, Finland, May 2003. SUGGESTED CITATION:
| |
