A Downside to the Integration of Regions and Nations

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Oded Stark (University of Bonn, University of Warsaw and University of Tübingen)

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IWH conference room

Oded Stark (University of Bonn, University of Warsaw and University of Tübingen)

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Oded Stark is Distinguished Fellow at the Center for Development Research, University of Bonn, Distinguished Professor at the University of Warsaw, and Adjunct Professor at the University of Tuebingen. He served as Distinguished Research Scholar at Georgetown University, as University Professor (Chair in Economic and Regional Policy) at the University of Klagenfurt, and as Honorary University Professor of Economics at the University of Vienna, and prior to that as Professor of Economics (Chair in Development Economics) at the University of Oslo, and as Professor of Population and Economics and as the Director of the Migration and Development Program at Harvard University.

Programm

This paper looks at the integration of regions and nations through the prism of the merger of populations (societies). The paper employs a particular index of social stress. Stylized examples of the merging of two populations suggest that with integration, the social stress index will increase. The examples form the basis for the development of new formulas for calculating the social stress of an integrated population as a function of the levels of social stress of the constituent populations when apart. The formulas reveal that the social stress of an integrated population is higher than the sum of the levels of social stress of the constituent populations when apart. This raises the distinct possibility that the merging of populations may be a social liability: integration may fail to give the populace a sense of improved wellbeing.