First published in 1962, The Theory of Economic Integration provides an excellent exposition of a complex and far-reaching topic. Professor Balassa has been remarkably successful in covering so much ground with such care and balance, in a treatment which is neither in any way abstruse nor unnecessarily technical. His book will interest economists in Europe by reason of its subject and treatment, but it is also a valuable and reliable textbook for students tackling integration as part of a course of International Economics and for those studying Public Finance. He distinguishes between the various forms of integration (free trade area, customs union, common market, economics union, and total integration). In addition, he applies the theoretical principles to current projects such as the European Common Market and Free Trade Area, and to Latin American integration projects. In offering this theoretical study, the author builds on the conclusions of other writers, but goes beyond this in providing a unifying framework for previous contributions and in exploring questions that in the past received little attention – in particular, the relationship between economic integration and growth (especially the interrelationship between market size and growth, and the implications of various factors for economic growth in an integrated area).

The books fills a niche in the market for books on regional integration, where most of the publications deal with theory or the analysis of specific cases, almost no books can be found dealing with analytical methodology The book includes a combination of well-known and expert scholars and up and coming young academics The book will appeal strongly to both economists and politics and while the authors present an interdisciplinary approach the economists and political sceintsists approaches are kept separate

The book provides a comprehensive and critical analysis of the theoretical and empirical literature in international economics arising from the proliferation of regional integration schemes in the last four decades. The focus is on the pure theoretical and empirical work in the field, covering all recent developments in theoretical work and measurement techniques in regional integration. The new book fully updates the analysis in the author's very well received The Theory and Measurement of International Economic Integration (1989) to take into account the impact of a further decade of rapid integration around the world. Detailed empirical analysis of the major integration schemes themselves can be found in the author's collection International Economic Integration (1997).

This authoritative new collection presents a selection of previously published seminal articles that have led to the development of intra-industry trade theory and empirical research. Parts I and II cover the pioneering research in the 1960s and a number of models of intra-industry trade that were developed from 1979 to the present day. Parts III and IV look at the empirical research problems in the choice of measure of intra-industry trade and empirical studies that seek to identify the nature of this trade. Part V deals with the role of the multinational corporation and part VI completes the collection with articles that look at extensions to asset markets and applications to other problems such as the geography of trade and rules of origin. Intra-Industry Trade will be an invaluable source of reference to all international trade economists and libraries specialising in this area.

Post-colonial Africa is littered with regional trade agreements that amounted to little more than a photo opportunity for the leaders that signed them. This book explores conventional explanations for past failures and posits a new theory rooted in the symbiotic relationship between authoritarian politics and crony-capitalism.

This text is suitable for international trade courses at the undergraduate level. Knowledge of microeconomics is an assumed prerequisite for students using this text.