Economic integration assessing models in regional integration associations

Rapid development of economic integration encourages the scientific community to search for models and cooperation mechanisms that could explain the integration processes in the world economy. This paper examines the key models of integration assessment that exist in economic scientific literature — “linear” by B. Balassa (1), “core-periphery” by L. Tindemans (2), “gravitational” by J. Tinbergen (3). The purpose of the article is to determine the most relevant and universal model that allows evaluating the integration interaction in all integration associations. Using the example of the of EAEU, APEC and AC integration blocks, the author carries out the analysis of these three integration models. The study is based on the author's approach, which are determines a set of indicators and defines each model characteristics. The paper highlights the criteria for correlating regional integration blocks with their corresponding integration assessment models and provides a graphical visualization of the models. The findings show that a wide variety of regional integration blocks in the world economy today call into question the choice of one universal integration model from the existing ones. The author develops a new system of indicators which will subsequently help conduct a comprehensive assessment of integration between different countries and groups of countries. 

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