Regional Integration Among Less Developed Economies: Discordant Variations on an Evergreen

Contributing to a festschrift is an occasion to take stock of debates relating to the person and work being honored. Klaus Hüfner has dealt with the relationship between institution building and development time and again in his academic writings which were closely related to his extensive extra-academic activities (e.g. Hüfner 1989, 1992). Thus, regional integration among developing countries belongs to a set of topics that have been of life-long interest to him. And regional integration is definitely an issue in need of stock-taking since it is a subject of long-standing debate and one which has been given a new lease of life by novel political and theoretical cases in favor of South-South-integration.