Complete economic integration

Introduction

Complete economic integration is the final stage of economic integration. After complete economic integration, the integrated units have no or negligible control of economic policy, including full monetary union and complete or near-complete fiscal policy harmonisation.

Complete economic integration is most common within countries, rather than within supranational institutions. A good example of this is a country like the United States of America which can be viewed as a series of highly integrated quasi-autonomous nation states. In this example it is true that complete economic integration results in a federalist system of governance as it requires political union to function as, in effect, a single economy.

Political Integration

Political integration is required because for an economic union to be most effective it is necessary for all provinces, though this is a narrow description as geographic areas represent an infinite number of economic microcosms, to be at the same stage of the economic cycle.