The Pure Effects of European Integration on Intra-EU Core and Periphery Trade

This paper analyzes the effects of EU integration on intra-EU trade volumes with a special focus on trade within and between the core and the periphery countries. We find that in all phases of integration core-periphery and intra-periphery growth of trade has experienced stronger positive effects than intra-core trade. An extrapolation of the estimation results suggests that intra-periphery trade and intracore trade will intensify in course of ”typical” additional enlargements at the expense of core-periphery trade. This suggests that either the old core will change or a second, new one may form.