The purpose of this paper is to assess the effect on North South trade of the quality of governance in developing countries by applying a gravity trade model. I test the model for a sample of 21 OECD countries and 95 developing countries over the period 1984-1997. A panel data analysis is used...

World trade has grown rapidly. Several factors are highlighted by literature as a driving force behind the growth of world trade. Reduction in barriers to trade is one of them. A comprehensive empirical investigation is carried to ascertain the trade reducing and increasing effect of barriers to...

This research will analyze the effects of the similarities in economic size and institutional level on bilateral trade. It is interested whether similarities at the country size and institutional level encourage international trade between countries. Using panel data of the bilateral trade of...

The paper identifies the features and determinants of Kazakhstan's foreign trade with other members of the Customs Union of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus (CU), and estimates the degree of utilization of its trade potential for 1995-2011. The participation in the CU has led to an increase of...

This paper investigates the extent of integration of the transition economies into the world economy. We find that south-eastern Europe (SEE) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) trade significantly less with the world economy than the accession countries. We use a gravity model to...

Ineffective institutions increase transaction costs and reduce trade. This paper shows that differences in the effectiveness of institutions offer an explanation for the tendency of OECD countries to trade disproportionately with each other, and with non-OECD countries.

Formal trade barriers and transport costs explain only part of the resistance to international trade. Search costs on the international market and insecurity of property rights and contract enforcement have recently been emphasized as important intangible barriers to trade. This paper proposes...

The gravity model is the workhorse model to describe and explain variation in bilateral trade patterns. Consistent with both Heckscher-Ohlin models and models of imperfect competition and trade, this versatile model has proven to be very successful, explaining a large part of the variance in...

Policy makers in "small" countries facing trade liberalisation have become concerned with the potential loss of manufacturing employment and output to "large" economies in the presence of economies of scale in production and international transport costs. This paper offers a methodology to...