Template-type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Florian Ploeckl
Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Economics and Nuffield College, University of Oxford
Author-Email: Florian.Ploeckl@economics.ox.ac.uk
Title: The Zollverein and the Formation of a Customs Union
Abstract: The Zollverein, the German customs union of 1834, was the institutional centrepiece of Germany’s economic unification. A bargaining model is applied to analyze the
structure of its negotiation process and accession sequence. The existence of negative coalition externalities, the effect of a coalition on non-participants, led
Prussia to choose sequential over multilateral negotiations. The nature of these externalities within the areas of financial revenues, trade policy and domestic
political economy also explains the observed accession sequence. The choice of a customs union as institutional structure allowed Prussia to extract higher concessions
from other states due to stronger coalition externalities.
Classification-JEL: Customs Union, Trade Agreements, Coalition Externalities
Keywords: N73, F13
Length: 40 pages
Creation-Date: 2010-08-20
Number: _084
File-URL: http://www.economics.ox.ac.uk/materials/papers/4430/ploeckl84.pdf
File-Format: application/pdf
Handle: RePEc:nuf:esohwp:_084