Economic Regionalism

10 Key excerpts on "Economic Regionalism"

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  Economic Development Through Regional Trade

  A Role for the New East African Community?

  • K. Kimbugwe, N. Perkidis, M. Yeung, W. Kerr, Nicholas Perdikis(Authors)
  • 2012(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  2 Regional Trade and Economic Development 11 2.1 What is regional integration? Regional integration has many synonyms including economic integra- tion and economic cooperation, but is generally understood to be the coming together of countries, usually, but paradoxically, not always in the same region, 1 with the objective of reducing barriers to trade between members and in the process, spurring development and enhancing wel- fare in the region. Pelkmans (1984, p. 2) defines economic integration as ‘both a state of affairs and a process’. As a state of affairs, it refers to a fusion of separate national economies through various types of inte- gration. As a process, it signifies the gradual elimination of economic barriers between countries. Hine (1994) defines it as attempts by governments to link together the economies of two or more countries through the removal of economic barriers under spe- cific integration schemes. (p. 235) The World Bank’s (2000) comprehensive survey of trade blocs defines it as being about much more than reducing tariffs and quotas and explicitly includes the goal of removing other barriers that segment markets and impede the free flow of goods, services and factors of production. (p. 1) It further states: they have to be more outward looking instead of attempting to apply a ‘one suit fits all’ model to all countries. (p. 2) 12 Economic Development Through Regional Trade From the above discussion, regional integration can be defined along three dimensions. The first is geographic scope, which focuses on the number of countries involved in an arrangement (variable geometry) in which case the motivation to join may be political, economic, social or geographical. The second is coverage, that is, the sector(s) or activity(ies) involved (trade, labour mobility, macro-policies, sector policies, etc.).

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  Theories of New Regionalism

  A Palgrave Macmillan Reader

  • F. Söderbaum, T. Shaw, F. Söderbaum, T. Shaw(Authors)
  • 2003(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  For eco- nomic integration to succeed and regionalism to take hold in the long run, the process of regionalization must be based on less ambitious but achiev- able cooperation in the short run. New regionalism in development: economics, politics and second-generation RIAs The economic dimension New regionalism involves more than economic dimensions. But it is unrealistic to expect decision-makers to enter into regional arrangements without assessing the economic gains their countries can accrue. The logic is circular but valid. The case for twenty-first-century regionalism goes beyond economics. But the economics of the case provides its starting point. Assessing economic gains and making the public aware of them is a key task of any government. Such assessments need to go beyond customs union theory and take into account that in a globalizing world the net gains from trade creation may be captured not just by members but by countries outside the region as well. Traditional analysis of the economic benefits accruing from trade creation vs. diversion focuses on static (orthodox) gains. 2 By contrast, the unortho- dox (dynamic efficiency) gains of regionalism go beyond a one-time effect. 122 New Regionalism and Economic Development They lead to sustained increases in the rate of real income growth in a region.

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  The European Union and the United States

  Competition and Convergence in the Global Arena

  • Steven McGuire, Michael Smith(Authors)
  • 2008(Publication Date)
  • Red Globe Press

    (Publisher)

  Chapter 7 Regionalism and Interregionalism The European Union is a regional as well as a global power. It is indeed the most richly developed, complex and successful regional political arrangement in existence. The United States too is a regional and global power; its regional relationships are con-structed differently from the EU’s but both actors have sought to develop a complex web of geographically defined economic, polit-ical and – in the broadest sense – security relationships. Some of these owe their existence to history, while the new regionalism of recent years owes a great deal to both actors seeking to maximize their access to markets and secure foreign policy goals in the post-cold-war world. The international system is often less globalized than commonly thought – or at least differently globalized – with distinct regional political and economic arrangements surviving and indeed thriving in this age of the global (Gamble and Payne 1996; Hettne et al. 1999; Schirm 2002; Payne 2004). That large entities like the US and the European Union have policies tailored to specific regions is not a surprise. However, there has been something of a renaissance in the use of region-specific politics in recent years, partly out of frus-tration with multilateralism at the global level but also as a reflec-tion of the important historical and cultural realities that shape and constrain policy choice. As power in the international political economy has shifted away from Europe and America and towards Asia, both the EU and the US have relied on regional or bilateral pacts where their bargaining power is significant. There is however an important point of contrast in the manner in which the EU and the US engage regionally.

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  The New Regional Economies

  The US Common Market and the Global Economy

  • William R. Barnes, Larry C. Ledebur(Authors)
  • 1997(Publication Date)
  • SAGE Publications, Inc

    (Publisher)

  It is also more difficult to organize through a neat set of concepts. It is this more complex reality, however, that should be the crucible of economic policy. Key and distinctive elements of this new paradigm of economic reality include the following: 1. The regional paradigm recognizes that economic regions, not state or local political jurisdictions, are the basic building blocks of the national economy. 2. It focuses on the internal integration and interdependence of economic regions, and it recognizes the essential interdependence of the parts of the urban economic system. 3. It understands that the national economy is the national system of eco-nomic regions, not the political jurisdiction of the federal government. 4. It establishes a clear focus on the interdependence of economic regions and the critical importance of linkages to the performance of the national economic system, the true national economy. 5. It recognizes that the national economy spills across the jurisdictional boundaries of the federal government. 6. It emphasizes that the national economy, the system of economic regions, is an open system inextricably linked to other national economic systems in the global economy. 7. It recognizes that governmental boundaries can and do have significant economic effects. 72 THE NEW REGIONAL ECONOMIES The United States has a federal system of government consisting of three tiers of government, a political federalism. 1 1 The U.S. economy consists of two tiers: the metropolitan-centered local economic region and the national economic system (the national economy). We call this economic federalism. The U.S. political economy can be described as a system shaped by two federalisms: one economic and one political. Both contain multiple and often conflicting loyalties and investments. Of immediate impor-tance here, however, are the relations between the two.

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  Dilemmas in Regional Policy

  • Antoni Kuklinski, Jan G. Lambooy, Antoni Kuklinski, Jan G. Lambooy(Authors)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • De Gruyter Mouton

    (Publisher)

  Thus, we are coming to the stage of practical actions aiming at goal oriented and intended shaping of all development processes at the coun-try (in international context) and regional level (in country's context). Development theory, political economy, spatial economics theory, and regional economics are at the basis of the socio-economic policy as well as spatial and regional policy which formulate guide lines as well as direct and indirect methods of development management practice. This regards also the content and form of development strategy which should consider, to the indispensable extent, the - at the given time - relevant internal and external constraints. 2 Such constraints may sometimes have a decisive influence on the actual development strategy and conduct of the course of current development processes - within the required set of its long-term, prospective goals. Analogous assumptions emerge in the context of socio-economic planning which considers the whole set of tasks at country's and regional levels. The specific relationships of the regional economics and policy with the regional development planning should be particularly em-phasized. These considerations have been aiming only at the general definition Regional economics within the system of economic science 47 of the regional economics* place within the economic sciences system. This can be illustrated with the following scheme: Political economy Development theory social, economic, and spatial in the international, country's and regional setting ' Spatial economics theory« Regional economics • Social, economic, and spatial policy international, country's, and regional Development strategy ^ socio-economic and spatial Socio-economic and spatial planning national (country's) and regional More precise delimitation of the theories of spatial and regional economics requires further studies and scientific discussions, however, with simultaneous analysis of their basic interrelations.

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  The Political Economy of Regionalism

  The Case of Southern Africa

  • F. Söderbaum(Author)
  • 2004(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  The third type of regionalism, shadow regionalism, shows that certain political actors use the façade of the state or formal regionalism in order 68 to bolster their own private economic interests. Regime-boosting and shadow regionalism tend to be overlapping and complementary rather than competitive. The former enhances political goals and the ability to stay in power, while the latter serves the private economic interests of ruling elites. Informal Economic Regionalism has received rather muted attention in the study of regionalism. This is unfortunate since for more than 100 years myriads of informal private economic actors – such as infor- mal traders, settlers, farmers and ethnic business networks – have been deeply involved in the multidimensional construction of Southern Africa. The fourth section draws attention to how this particular type of regionalism is played out, who is behind it, and the reasons why it occurs. The ‘project’ of market integration The general ideological foundation of regional cooperation and inte- gration in Africa is first and foremost formulated in the visions and series of treaties developed within the framework of the African Union (AU), formerly the Organization of African Unity (OAU), most notably the Lagos Plan of Action, the Abuja Treaty, and more recently the Constitutive Act of the AU as well as the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). The common vision is that pan-African eco- nomic regionalism provides a solution both to the balkanization of the African economies on a continental level and to the marginalization of Africa in the world economy.

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  Europe and Asia

  Regions in Flux

  • P. Murray(Author)
  • 2008(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  It analyses the reasons behind the growth of international production networks in both regions and also the zonal dimension to their regional economic 122 The Economic Geography of Regionalization 123 development. Contrasts and comparisons between East Asia and Europe are made therein. Regionalization in East Asia and Europe: Geographic Perspectives Regionalization and Economic Geography We may define regionalization as a regional integration process that derives from the micro-level activities of private or civil sector actors, these primarily being firms. This may be contrasted, then, with state-led projects of regionalism whereby regional integration is driven by public policy initiatives, such as a free trade or financial co-operation agreement. Of course, a prime aim of such projects is to foster the regionalization process itself, with the objectives of improving the region’s resource efficiency and economic competitiveness. Region- alization furthermore represents the economic geography of regional integration, or the actual physical manifestation of what binds a regional economy together in a coherent and structural sense. The micro-perspectives of regionalization require us to look at the regional integration process in quite different spatial and territorial terms in relation to the conventional macro-level perspectives of regionalism. One thinks of Europe and East Asia as both being relatively integrated economic regions through the development of pan-regional systems of trade, investment and finance. One also still tends to think of nation- states as being the main ‘container boxes’ of economic activity, or that the European and East Asian regional economies comprise a set of ‘national’ component parts, for example the German economy, the Japanese economy.

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  Revisiting Regionalism and the Contemporary World Order

  Perspectives from the BRICS and beyond

  • Élise Féron, Jyrki Käkönen, Gabriel Rached, Élise Féron, Jyrki Käkönen, Gabriel Rached(Authors)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • Verlag Barbara Budrich

    (Publisher)

  Employing the concept of geo-economics, these projects could be called Mega-Regional Geo-Economic Initiatives (MRGIs). While they are economic in substance, they are political and strategic in nature, and so geo-economic. Indeed, the definition of economics as decisions about who gets what, when, and how corresponds to one of the classical definitions of politics. With regard to the specific concept of “geo-economics,” it has been defined, for example, as the geostrategic use of economic power (Wigell 2016: 137). Edward Luttwak (1990), on the other hand, derives geo-economics from the fundamen-tal realist notion about states as territorially defined political entities that are primarily interested in the welfare and safety of their own citizens. Thus, eco-nomic relations for Luttwak reproduce this source of conflict on economic is-sues. For example, in regulating trade through trade deals or through transna-tional infrastructure projects, Luttwak argues that states are primarily aspiring “to maximize benefits within their own territory.” In this context, the economy is not merely a source of conflict, but also the battleground and instrument of war: battles are won by the structuring of economic relations through regula-tory or financial means in a manner that yields the maximum gain for exclusive territorially bound groups or areas (Luttwak 1990: 18, 21). The functional logic of the MRGIs varies. Western MRTAs would seem to use regulatory institutions or trade rules and institutional innovations as their primary modus operandi. With regard to trade rules, they manifest the regula-tory turn in international trade, resulting from the shift of focus from tariffs to regulation as a means of trade liberalization. As mentioned earlier, twenty-first-century trade requires high protection for intellectual property rights, in-vestments, uniform regulatory standards, and trade facilitation (Baldwin 2011: 9).

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  Regionalism and Integration in Africa

  EU-ACP Economic Partnership Agreements and Euro-Nigeria Relations

  • Samuel O. Oloruntoba(Author)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  Emerging trends toward mega regional agreements and their possible implications on African econ- omies were also analyzed. The book argues that integration efforts in the continent have, while following the European model of integra- tion, focused excessively on the economic imperative. It contends that by neglecting the political and social dynamics of African societies, the various theories such as market integration, liberal, new geography thesis, or even dependency, have failed to fos- ter integration in the continent. This book argues that the subopti- mal outcome of the various regional integration programs in Africa can be traced directly to the application of wrong theoretical models, especially, the Eurocentric market integration theory. Also, the low intra-Africa trade that have been recorded since the launch of various integration schemes are a function of the structural weaknesses in the domestic economies of African countries, and the undue focus on commercialization at the expense of manufacturing. The desire to establish an African Community Market or an African Economic Community may not be realized unless a new perspective to integration is adopted. Production and manufactur- ing that is anchored on developmental industrial and trade policy are critical elements of a successful regional integration. As a United Nations Development Programme study (2011:8) shows, formulation of a regional industrial policy could encourage skills upgrading for value added in agriculture and other manufacturing opportunities. Support given by Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries to small and medium enterprises for building an integrated economic space by unbundling production across countries, could be a benchmark on industrial policy in Africa. The New Regionalism Approach embraces the involvement of more stakeholders and provokes regionalism from below, deeming it to be more appropriate than market-based integration.

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  Research Agendas in EU Studies

  Stalking the Elephant

  • M. Egan, N. Nugent, W. Paterson, M. Egan, N. Nugent, W. Paterson(Authors)
  • 2009(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  15. There has been significant attention in the political economy literature to the importance of the institutional environment of organizations, and the influential varieties of capitalism literature have tended to emphasize the importance of national-level differences in the ways in which institutions structure economic activities. 16. Economic geography which is concerned with the location and distribu- tion of economic activity, the spatial organization and function of business activity would provide additional insights into many of these issues con- cerning the role of territoriality and markets. References Alesina, A. and Giavazzi, F. (2006) The Future of Europe: Reform or Decline (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press). Appel, H. (2001) 'Corruption and the Collapse of the Czech Transition Miracle', East European Politics and Societies 15(3): 523-53. Archarya, A. (2007) 'The Emerging Regional Architecture of World Politics' World Politics 59(4): 629-52. Armen, A. (1950) 'Uncertainty, Evolution, and Economic Theory,' Journal of Political Economy 58(3): 211-21. Asbeek Brusse, W. (1997a) Tariffs, Trade and European Integration, 1947- 1957 (London: Macmillan). Asbeek Brusse, W. (1997b) 'Regional Plans for European Trade, 1945- 1957', in R. Griffiths (ed.) The Economic Development of the EEC (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar): 45-63. Baldwin, R. and Thornton, P. (2008) Multilateralising Regionalism (London: CEPR). Balme, R. and Bridges, B. (2008) Europe-Asia Relations: Building Multilateralisms (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan). Baumol, W. J. (1982) 'Contestable Markets: An Uprising in the Theory of Industry Structure', American Economic Review, American Economic Association 72(1): 1-15, March. Begg, I. (2008) 'Economic Governance in an Enlarged Euro Area' European Economy Economic Papers 311, March. (Brussels: European Commission). Bensel, R. (1990) Yankee Leviathan: The Origins of Central State Authority in US 1859-1877 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

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