February 22, 2008 (LPAC)--Alberto Alesina, the pupil of Robert Mundell's, has played a role in the process of breakup of Belgium with the book The Size of Nations" explains today in an article for the Italian financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore that globalization is the engine for separatism. "A fundamental factor makes small countries able to survive: international trade and financial integration... therefore small countries, such as Kosovo, need free trade and globalization."

"In fact, if small countries can economically survive, then in an analysis of costs and benefits, the desire to separate prevails, to create more uniform communities." Therefore, "when it is possible, it is better to allow separations."

Alesina goes so far as to regret that the U.S.A. did not split in the Civil War: "Even the United States, the melting pot par excellence, went through an extraordinarily bloody and violent secession war to maintain unity. Was it worth it? Difficult to say."