At present, the European Union (EU) is facing the biggest round of enlargement in its history. Many of the EU accession countries, which are less developed than the incumbents, will seek accession to the European Monetary Union (EMU) soon after the required two-year qualifying period. This is...

This study examines the feasibility of economic integration in Latin America. We analyze the existence of the long-term and short-term common movements among key macro variables—real GDP, intra-regional trade, private investment and consumption—in the seven largest economies in Latin...

This paper quantifies the interdependence in national labor markets in Central America, a topic that has not received attention in the economic integration literature. Two sets of panel data are constructed--one formed by the aggregation of annual time series data from Costa Rica and El...

This paper demonstrates that the appropriate econometric technique of testing for the effect of regional integration on bilateral trade is to augment the standard gravity model with country specific dummies instead of regional integration dummies. Using data on bilateral trade between Tanzania...

This paper examines empirically whether and how regional integration leads to convergence and growth amongst developing countries. Using standard growth models for nearly 100 developing countries over 1970-2004 we cannot establish robust growth effects of regional integration as such at the...

The paper addresses the linkage between certain aspects of the increasing economic integration of world markets and the level of child labour. We empirically examine, first, the often-cited conventional wisdom that multinational enterprises invest in countries where the extent of child labour is...

In the postwar era, economic interaction and integration among Western European countries has grown rapidly. We examine whether those close and growing linkages have led to inter-country income convergence in Western Europe during 1960-2000. We find clear empirical evidence of convergence. This...

This paper investigates the welfare effects of an increase in location subsidy by constructing a general equilibrium linear space model, including transport costs and the cross-border ownership of equities. We assume a market structure with monopolistic competition in which entry is restricted...

Trade relations between Japan and the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries (GCC Countries) is very strong and has been growing at very high rates during the last twenty years. In 1996, Japan imported more than 65% of its crude oil from the GCC Countries. The GCC countries’ imports from Japan...

Despite negative experiences with regional integration in sub-Saharan Africa the SADC members announced in August 1996 to make the entire region a free trade area in the next eight years. This article evaluates the opportunity and threats of SADC in order to answer the question whether this...