Abstract In this paper we extend recent work using the Gravity Model to estimate the trade and price effects of Preferential Trading Agreements (PTAs), by explicitly taking into account the extent of the preferential access being provided by the importer. This involves specifying a trade model,...

The impact of the Central and Eastern European economies' trade integration with European markets on CEE trade structures has been studied extensively. These studies frequently observe a quality upgrading of CEE exports. In this paper we consider three dimensions of quality upgrading upgrading...

This paper employs smooth transition models to investigate the GDP series of ten CEECs. Allowing for a transition in both trend and intercept we examine the response of GDP to reforms in CEECs. Our results indicate that in only a small of number of countries is there evidence to suggest that the...

In this paper we extend the agglomeration model of Ciccone (2002) to the level of industry. We then test this model using panel data for six sectors on regional level data for 27 EU member states. Our results for the aggregate economy confirm the estimates of Ciccone (2002). For our full sample...

We analyse the robustness of potential determinants of the differences in the long-run growth rate of GDP per capita across EU regions using quantile regression. We propose using Bayesian Model Averaging (BMA) methods on the class of quantile regression models in order to assess the set of...

This paper addresses the link between productivity and labour mobility. The hypothesis tested in the paper is that technology is transmitted across industries through the movement of skilled workers embodying human capital. The embodied knowledge is then diffused within the new environment...

In this paper we examine the impact of membership in Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs) on trade between PTA members. Rather than considering the impact of PTA membership on the volume of trade we consider the impact of membership on the structure of trade. For a large sample of countries over...

In this paper we consider the trade creating effects of Preferential Trade Agreements (PTAs) for a large sample of countries over the period 1960-2000. The paper builds upon the existing literature by examining whether any significant effects of PTAs occur through a change in the variety of...

Based on recent approaches measuring the factor content of trade when intermediates are traded this paper provides an approach to decompose the value added and factor (capital, high, medium and low educated labour) content of trade into foreign and domestic components. This adds to the...

In this paper we examine the link between international outsourcing – or offshoring – and the skill structure of labour demand for a sample of 40 countries over the period 1995 2009. The paper uses data from the recently compiled World-Input-Output-Database (WIOD) to estimate a system of...