Unification and Secession: Group Size and ‘Escape from Lock‐In’

Yarbrough, Beth V.; Yarbrough, Robert M.

doi:10.1111/1467-6435.00044

Cited by 9 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Such costs may overshadow the potential benefits linked to size insofar as large populations tend to be more heterogeneous ethnically, linguistically and in terms of their preferences Ruta, 2005). Large countries may also face greater problems in terms of institution-building, collective action, and public goods provision (Yarbourgh and Yarbourgh, 1998;Alesina and Spolaore, 2003;Fitoussi and Laurent, 2008). Hence, supporters of smaller countries tend to laud them as more responsive, cohesive, innovative, and easier to govern than their larger counterparts.…”

Section: Country-size and Economic Performancementioning

confidence: 99%

The Economics of Secession: Analysing the Economic Impact of the Collapse of the Former Yugoslavia

Rodríguez‐Pose

Stermsek²

2015

Territory, Politics, Governance

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This paper looks at the economic impact of secession through the lens of the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia. It uses an econometric analysis covering the period between 1956 and 2011-including a series of factors linked to the independence process, socioeconomic and structural controls, and the level of development-in order to assess whether a) breaking away from the former Yugoslavia delivered an 'independence dividend' to the newly independent countries and whether b) independence had a more favourable impact in richer, rather than poorer territories. The results of the analysis underline that there has been no favourable economic impact of secession and that how secession was achieved is key in understanding the subsequent economic performance of the newly independent countries. In cases of secession without conflict, independence did not have a noticeable impact on ensuing economic performance. Secession achieved by conflict, by contrast, seriously dented growth prospects.

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Section: Country-size and Economic Performancementioning

confidence: 99%

The Economics of Secession: Analysing the Economic Impact of the Collapse of the Former Yugoslavia

Rodríguez‐Pose

Stermsek²

2015

Territory, Politics, Governance

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“…Nevertheless, Alesina, Spolaore, and Wacziarg (2000) and Ramondo and Rodríguez-Clare (2010) contend that smaller countries can compensate the costs imposed by the limited size of their domestic market by increased trade openness. Furthermore, it has been frequently asserted that the free-rider problem is less disruptive of collective action in smaller states, facilitating a more flexible and effective economic policy (Kuznets, 1960;Streeten, 1993;Armstrong & Read, 1995;Yarbrough & Yarbrough, 1998). Finally, smaller countries may benefit from a more homogenous population, easing the accumulation of social capital and generalized trust (Armstrong & Read, 1998).…”

Section: (B) Growthmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Economics of State Fragmentation: Assessing the Economic Impact of Secession

Reynaerts

Vanschoonbeek

2016

SSRN Journal

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This paper provides empirical evidence that declaring independence significantly lowers per capita GDP based on a large panel of countries covering the period 1950-2013. To do so, we rely on a semi-parametric identification strategy that controls for the confounding effects of past GDP dynamics, anticipation effects, unobserved heterogeneity, model uncertainty and effect heterogeneity.Our baseline results indicate that declaring independence reduces per capita GDP by around 20% in the long run. We subsequently propose a novel triple-difference procedure to demonstrate the stability of these results. Another methodological novelty consists of the development of a two-step estimator to shed some light on the primary channels driving our results. We find robust evidence that the adverse effects of independence increase in the extent of surface area loss, pointing to the presence of economies of scale, but that they are mitigated when newly independent states liberalize their trade regime or use their new-found political autonomy to democratize.

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“…Yet, the hypothesis is often used, such as when theorizing about nation size and the probability of secession, see e.g. Yarbrough and Yarbrough (1998).…”

Section: The Role Of Rational Ignorance In Determining the Heterogenementioning

confidence: 99%

Diversity, identity, and the indeterminacy of the size of nations

Herrmann‐Pillath

2008

Eur J Law Econ

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Unification and Secession: Group Size and ‘Escape from Lock‐In’

Cited by 9 publications

References 17 publications

The Economics of Secession: Analysing the Economic Impact of the Collapse of the Former Yugoslavia

The Economics of Secession: Analysing the Economic Impact of the Collapse of the Former Yugoslavia

The Economics of State Fragmentation: Assessing the Economic Impact of Secession

Diversity, identity, and the indeterminacy of the size of nations

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