Professor Edgar Morgenroth:

As economists we tend to think of the economic benefits. In the case of Germany, it meant an additional 18 million citizens so the scale of the country increased. It also received some natural resources and so forth. However, one should think about the wider benefits and not only the economic benefits. That is what I refer to when I talk about value versus cost. There is a price. There are things that cost money. Change will cost us something, but that is not to say we do not value it and even put a value on it that is much bigger than the cost. As I said earlier, in the case of German unification there is a high price tag, but the vast majority of people are quite happy to pay it because they value what they got more than the money.

There would be an even larger number in favour of unification if some mistakes had not been made. Those mistakes were made because there was a lack of planning. I remember it relatively well and I did research on German unification very soon after unification. I spent some time in east Germany. It happened suddenly - that could happen in the case of Irish unity as well - and no one had a plan. A plan was needed very quickly so it was made up on the hoof and certain mistakes were made. We are seeing the fallout in the political dimension at the moment in the growth of extreme parties because there was disgruntlement in east Germany, some of which was quite justified. That came through mistakes that were made. If we can avoid mistakes, that would be optimum.