Economic Integration — Topic Notes

A comprehensive, exam-focused guide to European Economic Integration, covering Balassa’s stages of integration, customs union theory (trade creation vs. trade diversion), the EU single market’s four freedoms, optimal currency area (OCA) theory and the euro, the European Central Bank’s monetary policy, EU enlargement economics, cohesion policy, the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis, Brexit and disintegration economics, and the economics-versus-politics of further integration. Includes custom diagrams (Balassa’s stages of integration and OCA criteria illustrations), fully worked problems (trade diversion classification, OCA criteria application, an economics-vs-politics analysis), comparison tables clarifying commonly confused integration stages, a 6-term glossary, and original practice questions with detailed explanations. Built around the theoretical-to-real-world application (particularly the Eurozone crisis and Brexit) that this course specifically emphasizes.