Integrating the European Product Market

For years, the alleged success of the European §economic integration has been the subject of a §vigorous debate. Re-challenging the approaches §commonly implemented and using suitable estimation §techniques, this book aims at to shed additional §light in understanding the remaining hindrances to §that European integration process. The focus is §concentrated on the transaction costs by using §evidence from trade volumes as well as from prices §of traded goods. By presenting pragmatic results, §the book discusses the effects of transaction costs §with the various attempts to integrate these effects §in a global explanation of the failure of products §market integration. The findings underscore the §still effective important negative impact of §transaction costs on the market integration process §and highlight the impacts of the country- and sector-§specific patterns on the EU economic integration. §For instance, as expected from the theoretical §prediction, the results suggest that trade partners §with lower transaction costs should experience more §intense trade relationships in sectors featured by §imperfect competition and increasing returns.