Professor Edgar Morgenroth:

It is a benefit in the wider sense. The example I tend to give is German unification, which has so far cost somewhere between €1 trillion and €3 trillion. It is ongoing and the costs will likely continue for perhaps another 20 or 30 years. That is a high price. If we ask people in Germany whether they are happy that their country was unified, the vast majority, over 70%, say “Yes”. In other words, they are quite willing to pay the price because they value what they got for it more than the price. That is the big distinction. We just talk about costs. We do not talk about the value of what might arise. That is a very important thing.

In that sense, our paper and our work are trying to stimulate some discussion about how unification could be done most efficiently and best for the people. Rather than saying that we should or should not do it; we are really saying that these are the issues that would arise and trying to identify how we deal with them.