This paper argues that the 'competitive liberalisation' of national governments of the past several decades has created a 'market' for regional economic integration agreements (EIAs). Evidence shows that countries that have selected into EIAs - such as free trade agreements - have 'chosen well'...

This paper argues that the 'competitive liberalisation' of national governments of the past several decades reflects national governments' expectations of larger trade impacts from regional economic integration agreements (EIAs) than typical ex ante economic models have suggested. Moreover, we...

type="main" xml:id="twec12135-abs-0001" <title type="main">Abstract</title> <p>Unlike the large literature on ‘democracy and trade’, there is a much smaller literature on the effect of the level of democracy in a nation on the level of its foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow. These few studies reveal mixed empirical...</p>