The impressive economic performance of Mexico during the first years after signing the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Canada and the United States has generated much interest as an example for other Latin American countries in their transition towards market-led economies....

Standard parametric tests of convergence cannot capture whether the increased dispersion among state incomes is due to a steepening gradient between north and south, a few hot states randomly distributed, or as an intermediate position, the emergence of convergence clubs. This paper tests for...

This paper creates a new index ("index of bilateral trade relation") to quantitatively evaluate the degree of regional economic integration based on countries' de facto bilateral trade relations. It concludes that a fundamental arrangement of East Asian regionalism should involve at least one of...

This paper investigates whether there is an S-Curve in Colombia using bilateral and disaggregated quarterly data for the period 1991-2014. More precisely, the short-run effects of a depreciation on the TB are analysed in 27 industries covered by the PAG Free Trade Agreement. The S-Curve found in...

Krugman (1991a,b) illustrated that natural (regional) free trade agreements (FTAs) are likely welfare enhancing if intercontinental transport costs are prohibitively high, but are likely welfare reducing if such costs are zero. Frankel, Stein and Wei (1995) extended the analysis to consider...

This paper examines the prospect of realizing regional economic integration via the mechanism of a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP). The FTAAP initiative represents a politically ambitious, high potential benefit option for achieving Asian regional integration. Among its desirable...

This report investigates the implications of regionalism for the interaction between trade and climate policy. It examines the implications of regional climate governance for international trade and conversely the implications of regional trade governance for climate change action. Regional...

Many regional trade agreements (RTAs) contain chapters and articles that are environmentally specific. However, Parties can elect to more broadly incorporate environmental objectives in their RTAs to address their environmental concerns in such agreements. This report investigates in what ways...

This report aims to test whether the inclusion of environmental provisions in Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) has contributed to the improvement of environmental quality among the Parties to these agreements through empirical modelling and analysis. Three indicators are considered as a proxy...