The US current account deficit has been persistently large and has brought the country's ratio of foreign debt to GDP to 20%, a figure that is high by historical standards. This paper argues that while US solvency is not a near-term constraint on ongoing deficits, the sheer size of the US...

WTO negotiations rely on tariff reduction formulas. It has been argued that formula approaches are of increasing importance in trade talks, because of the large number of countries involved, the wider dispersion in initial tariffs (e.g. tariff peaks) and gaps between bound and applied tariff...

This paper investigates the extent of per-capita income convergence in regional integration initiatives. Panel unit root testing is performed on 28 regional groupings. There is evidence of convergence in South- South integration, but this might be taking place to the bottom.

The forthcoming eastern enlargement of the European Union is generally perceived to constitute one of the most significant challenges to the process of European integration so far. The economic impact of the enlargement is likely to be considerable. The enlargement, as any other previous...

This paper aims to evaluate the trade potential of manufactured products between the members of the EU25 in the threshold of its Eastern enlargement. We estimate, for 2002, a cross-section gravity model, whose coefficients will be used to project the “natural” trade relations between them....

This paper estimates the potential effects of a free trade agreement (FTA) between China and Mercosur on poverty, income distribution, welfare and employment. The case of Argentina, in particular, is investigated. To this end, partial equilibrium techniques are combined with micro econometric...

This paper uses a model of horizontal multinational enterprises to explore the relationship between transportation costs and trade policy cooperation. Tariffs have the effect of attracting foreign direct investment to the benefit of consumers in the host country. As transport costs fall, the...

Traditional trade theory emphasizes static gains form trade, whereas the growing literature on endogenous growth is able to explain dynamic gains from trade, i.e., how trade influences economic growth. Empirical studies suggest that dynamic gains are likely to be significantly more important...

This paper estimates the effects of trade integration between China and Mercosur on employment. The case of Argentina, in particular, is investigated. Highly disaggregated data at the industry level is used for the first time to estimate labor demand elasticities in order to estimate the effects...

In the paper we construct two novel indices of relative centrality – peripheriality in order to test whether location has an impact on medium and long-run gains related to economic integration within the European Union. We utilize two popular econometric approaches – standard cross-...