This paper shows how distance may be used to coordinate on a unique equilibrium in which trade agreements are regional. Trade agreement formation is modeled as coalition formation. In a standard trade model with no distance between countries, a familiar problem of coordination failure arises...

In international trade literature, there is a common feature that the abolishment of barriers to trade leads to the expansion of trade flows. Most of the empirical studies aiming at simulation of welfare effects of trade liberalization explicitly make use of this direct tariff reduction - trade...