The ASEAN economic community (AEC) as a public good

Abstract

In 2016, ASEAN nations will embark on creating the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), which has been called the ‘most ambitious economic cooperation programme in the developing world’. This chapter applies public goods theory to another regional grouping, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and uses it to examine the different speed of integration compared to the EU. It examines five factors that are impeding the progress of the AEC and then goes on to argue that for further integration to be achieved, ASEAN needs a change in procedural norms away from the ‘ASEAN Way’.