Identity and Public Support for North American Integration

Abstract

Economists are generally in agreement that economic integration is mostly beneficial to society at large, even though such projects produce both winners and losers.¹ At times, publics have rejected integration altogether, for instance, in the 1992 majority vote in Switzerland to not join the European Economic Area. At other times, the public has rejected deeper integration, for instance, in the referenda on the Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe in France and the Netherlands in 2005. While convincing the public of the economic benefits of integration is one important component of increasing support, non-economic factors also play an important role, and the one we focus on in this chapter is how attachment to a broader regional identity increases support for regional integration.