Trade Integration (trade + integration)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


The Barcelona Process and the Political Economy of Euro-Mediterranean Trade Integration,

JCMS: JOURNAL OF COMMON MARKET STUDIES, Issue 5 2007
MARCO MONTANARI
The Barcelona Process aims to create a free trade area between the EU and its Mediterranean neighbours by 2010. This article uses two-level game theory to analyse the negotiations leading to the signature of the Euro-Mediterranean Association Agreements. It argues that conflicts of interests between the actors involved in the bargaining process are responsible for the restrictive nature of the agreements, characterized by agricultural protectionism, long transition periods and small amounts of financial support allocated by the EU to its partners. These provisions have prevented the Barcelona Process from significantly boosting Euro-Mediterranean bilateral trade in the last few years. [source]


Trade and Diversity: Is There a Case for ,Cultural Protectionism?'

GERMAN ECONOMIC REVIEW, Issue 4 2006
Carsten Eckel
Intra-industry trade; diversity; welfare; endogenous sunk costs; cultural protectionism Abstract. In contrast to the predictions of standard models of international trade, globalization critics are claiming that trade destroys diversity. We demonstrate that with endogenous sunk costs, trade integration in horizontally differentiated industries can indeed lead to a fall in diversity. Consumers are faced with a tradeoff between gains in real income and a loss in diversity, so that the impact on welfare is ambiguous. However, it is possible through fiscal policies to replicate pre-trade choices and still realize gains in real income. Thus, calls for a ,cultural protectionism' are not justified. [source]


Optimum Currency Areas and Key Currencies: Mundell I versus Mundell II

JCMS: JOURNAL OF COMMON MARKET STUDIES, Issue 4 2004
Ronald I. McKinnon
The East Asian economies are increasingly integrated in trade and direct investment. More than 50 per cent of their foreign trade is with each other. Both the high growth and level of trade integration is similar to what the western European economies achieved in the 1960s. So, in the new millennium, the inevitable question arises: is East Asia also an optimum currency area (OCA)? Despite the apparent success of EMU, many writers familiar with the East Asian scene think not. Taking the seminal papers of Robert Mundell as the starting point, this article first analyses traditional theorizing on the pros and cons of international monetary integration and then suggests new approaches to the problem of international risk-sharing in OCAs. [source]


Trade and Labour Markets: Vertical and Regional Differentiation in Italy

LABOUR, Issue 3 2000
Giuseppe Celi
The labour market misfortunes of the less skilled and rapid growth of international trade in manufactured goods with less advanced countries are linked by the paradoxical observation that trade theorists are in the forefront of those denying the importance of trade in income distribution. This paper analyses this conclusion by stressing the importance of vertical differentiation of trade flows and regional differentiation of skills in order to identify labour market effects of trade integration. Vertical and regional differentiation in trade and labour markets are analysed for a country, Italy, where these two elements seem to play a crucial role. The results show a likely displacement effect on unskilled labour due to trade flows with less advanced countries. Given the characteristics of Italian trade and labour markets, a stronger trade-induced displacement effect on demand for unskilled labour takes place in the North of the country. Thus the vertical differentiation in Italian intra-industry trade is a warning against understating the effect of trade on labour markets if product heterogeneity is not adequately considered. The regional differentiation of skill intensity is another warning against understating the effect of trade on labour markets whenever cross-sectoral effects and the change in relative specialization are not adequately considered. [source]


Economic Integration of Yunnan with the Greater Mekong Subregion,

ASIAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL, Issue 3 2006
Sandra Poncet
F14; F15 This paper examines the process of economic integration between the Chinese province of Yunnan and its riparian areas of the Mekong region. The gravity model of trade is used to investigate the evolution of Yunnan's international trade integration between 1988 and 1999. Although Greater Mekong Subregion cooperation efforts have had a positive effect on trade, trade has progressively decreased from an above-standard level to a normal level, according to the gravity model of trade. During this process, Yunnan's trade has increased with other countries such as Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia. This evolution is in line with Yunnan's development and indicates a progressive re-orientation of its trade toward more developed partners. The results suggest that the Mekong cooperation project has to broaden its perspective, taking into consideration Yunnan's expanding trade relations with countries outside the Greater Mekong Subregion. [source]