This paper explores the economic impacts of preferential trade agreements, conditional on their level of ambition. We cluster 278 agreements, encompassing 910 provisions over 18 policy areas and estimate the trade elasticity for the different clusters. We then use these elasticities in a series...

Geography, economic size, or common history, help predicting signed regional trade agreements (RTAs). However, not all signed RTAs are "natural" according to economic determinants. En-dogeneity and general equilibrium effects of RTAS are the two mechanisms addressed in this paper. We estimate...

Preface -- 1 Introduction -- 2 The Theory of Trade Agreements and Economic Integration, Size of Economics, Trade Costs and Economic Welfare -- 3 An Empirical Analysis of the Size Characteristics of Economies -- 4 An Empirical Analysis of the Impact of Trade Costs on Trade Flows and Welfare:...