Sequencing Regional Trade Integration and Cooperation Agreements: Describing a Dataset for a New Research Agenda

Trade agreements and other international cooperation agreements have proliferated en masse in recent years around the world. Rather than being spurred by exogenous forces alone, the two phenomena are likely both path-dependent and endogenous to one another. However, the understanding of their relationship remains nascent. The purpose of this paper is to describe a new dataset on international agreements that can be employed to start mending the gaps in the literature, and to develop a research agenda on the best practices of sequencing trade and cooperation agreements. The data provide grounds for hypothesizing that trade agreements can catalyze further cooperation.