This paper examines the impact of market integration in the presence of a labor union. Effects on wages, employment, product price, firm profits, and union rents are analyzed. Both the theoretical model as well as numerical sim - ulations show the importance of factors such as the product demand...

In this paper the Balassa steps of economic integration are first reviewed, and then extended to cover currernt integration configurations. Pre-conditions for each stage of integration are detailed using a backward-looking economic conditionality approach, and then both economic and political...

This study extends the gravity model to include a new measure of the trading partners’ location relative to other countries. The proposed measure is close in spirit to the theory of gravity, since it is based on the concept of the world trade center. The measure is statistically significant...

This paper introduces a more sophisticated two-sector model of endogenous long-run growth without scale effects. The world economy consists of two similarly developed countries both of which are capable of producing manufacturings and services. The knowledge-based services as intermediate inputs...

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...

This paper utilizes a specific factor model where rewards to labor and capi - tal, and employment are determined by efficient bargaining between entrepre - neurs and workers in each sector. Union threat points arise endogenously since workers’ outside opportunities in one sector depend on the...

This study examines the development of trade between ASEAN and New Zealand. Indices of trade intensity and trade potential are used to analyse the intensity of existing trade for the period 1980~2010 and trade potential going forward. This is the first use of the trade potential method to assess...

This study is motivated by frequent calls to harmonize labor standards across countries, which result from the fear that economic integration (and the accompanying liberalization of trade flows) will lead to an erosion of working conditions, as countries deliberately try to reduce labor...

South Asia was slow to adopt regional economic cooperation. The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), established in 1985, and the creation of the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) remain a widely discussed policy issue in this region. This study compares the impacts of...

We analyze industrial specialization and geographic concentration patterns within the NAFTA area during 1988-2000 and examine the determinant of spatial concentration. NAFTA countries have become increasingly dissimilar over time. A changing spatial structure of total NAFTA manufacturing is also...