Non-Tariff Measures (NTMs) have recently become a central issue for economists and policy makers. Based on a new database developed by the World Bank on five Middle East and North African(MENA) countries at a very detailed product level, this article provides calculations of the average tariff...

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...

This paper examines the trend towards regionalism upon stock market returns in Latin America. Average correlations with other countries in the region and with the world suggest that the Latin American stock markets have become more regionally integrated over the study period. This finding...

The present paper tries to give support for the decision whether to let the candidates for European Union get members of the Single European Market or just build a customs union with them and hinder free migration while capital movements were still allowed for. On the basis of a simple...

The South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) marked its Silver Jubilee in 2010. The SAARC’s charter, which was signed by Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka in 1985, has many similarities to the founding charters of similar regional...

This study examines the relationship between financial market segmentation and political risk. Financial economists have attributed market segmentation to factors such as foreign exchange risk, taxes, tariffs and capital controls whereas the influence of political risk has been largely ignored....

This paper analyzes the distributional effects of international outsourcing in a two sector Heckscher-Ohlin type model if both sectors get economical access to cost-saving international outsourcing. Thereby, it is shown that if both sectors are engaged in international outsourcing in...

It is occasionally argued that the formation of trading blocs between geographi - cally proximate countries should be encouraged because positive welfare effects are more likely to outweigh negative welfare effects. This paper presents a simple d i ff e rentiated products model that allows to...

This paper investigates the relationship between FDI and trade in the Asia-Pacific economies by examining the bilateral flows of trade and FDI in a cross-sectional study. The estimation results based on the gravity model show a significant and positive relationship between trade and FDI,...

Fifty years ago, Viner conjectured that customs unions may reduce the potential world welfare. The purpose of this note is to prove his conjecture rigorously using a simple and straightforward method. With respect to normative economics, this requires to show the possibility that, consecutively...