This paper studies the economic effects of 'deepening’ the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA). It combines new information on the content of trade agreements with gravity model estimates of the impact of deep trade agreements, agreements that go beyond the elimination of tariffs and...

Purpose: The aim of the paper is to evaluate the impact of CEFTA on exports and economic growth and development of its members. Regionalism is attractive to states and especially to developing countries, since they enhance their reliability on reforms to foreign investors and they raise their...

The paper argues that East Asian regionalism is fragile because (i) each nation's industrial competitiveness depends on the smooth functioning of "Factory Asia" - in particular for intraregional trade; (ii) the unilateral tariff-cutting that created Factory Asia is not subject to WTO discipline...

Many economists tend to be skeptical of the merits of Free-Trade Areas (FTAs) due to their second-best nature, while others support them under certain conditions, particularly as they allow for a more comprehensive treatment of trade- and investment-related issues than is currently possible...

We use panel data consisting of 96 countries and covering the period 1960–2000 to investigate the effects of free trade agreements (FTAs) and hub-and-spoke systems of FTAs on exports. Our empirical results imply an annual growth rate of 5.57% in exports, leading to a doubling of exports after...