On Distance and Synchronicity in the “New World”

... function of distance and the respective GDP mass of countries. The current crisis results in greater effective distances for economic exchanges to take place as quarantine measures limit the flow of goods, services and migrant workers.These effects of the pandemic are compounded by the adverse effects of the crisis on demand and the sizeable reduction in the GDP mass of the largest economies. The result is a weakening of the forces of gravity in the relations among the world’s economies. A force that may counter these negative tendencies at least in part is regional integration. Ex-ante regional integration ...