I use panel data of sales by the foreign subsidiaries of the U.S. MNCs to examine whether trading blocs create more or less FDI and the impacts on FDI of the extended market size created by forming blocs. By employing a region-fixed effects model, I find that countries forming trading blocs...

A number of theoretical studies have predicted that preferential trade agreements (PTAs) raise outside multinationals' incentive to invest in the participating countries, especially in those that are integrated with larger markets and have lower production costs. The hypothesis has, however, not...

After the EU accession of the Visegrad countries (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) in 2004 one of the most remarkable developments was a sudden upturn in mutual trade of this region's countries. In 2007 the value of aggregate intra-Visegrad trade was two and a half times higher...

This paper focuses on the possible effects of eastern enlargement not only on trade between the entrants and current members, but on the location of production in the enlarged union. The key notion is that of cross-border production sharing, also known as cross-border fragmentation of...

This paper argues that the large reduction in corporate tax rates and only gradual widening of tax bases in many countries over the last decades are consistent with tougher international competition for foreign direct investment (FDI). To make this point we develop a model in which governments...

This paper argues that the large reduction in corporate tax rates and only gradual widening of tax bases in many countries over the last decades are consistent with tougher international competition for foreign direct investment (FDI). To make this point we develop a model in which governments...

The rapid rise in global fragmentation - foreign investment, global supply chains, and 'production sharing' - is fundamentally reshaping the multilateral trading system. This paper uses a simple economic modeling framework to understand how the global fragmentation phenomenon may reshape the...

The slow progress and modest achievements of regional integration in South Asia have generated a huge amount of skepticism about its role as an effective strategy of growth. The present study, however, argues that there is need to forge deeper integration within the region. It examines the...

The paper analyzes the effects of a regionally coordinated profit tax in a model with three active countries, one of which is not part of the union, and a globally mobile firm. We show that regional tax coordination can lead to two types of welfare gains. First, for investments that would take...

We use a newly developed indicator of production sharing and processing trade to investigate the determinants of such trade in the context of a gravity model. The Network Trade Index measures countries' interdependence through the extent of trade in parts and components for further processing...