Regional business cycle synchronization in emerging and developing countries: Regional or global integration? Trade or financial integration?

Measuring Global and Regional Trade Integration in Terms of Concentration

I apply concentration measures from the inequality literature the Lorenz curve and Gini coefficient to the measurement of global and regional integration, and show that these can be derived from the theoretical gravity model in the presence of unequal costs of access for firms from different locations to a particular market. Overall, comparing 9 economies, I find that the USA is the most global...

Iran’s Resistance Economy and Regional Integration

Iran’s ‘resistance economy’ is sometimes presented as defensive strategy. Despite Washington’s ‘New Middle East’ wars and the rapid evaporation of expected benefits from the long JCPOA (nuclear deal) process, a certain illusion remains that a general ‘normalisation’ with the outside powers might still bring economic benefits to the country. Nevertheless, it remains true that, while Iran is a la...

Regional Trade Integration and Spatial Effects in the Euro Mediterranean Zone

Investment Provisions in Regional Integration Agreements for Developing Countries

Investment is a major determinant of economic growth, both in reference to the level of the capital stock and its productivity, but has been deficient in poor developing countries. A particular concern for poor countries has been relatively low levels of foreign direct investment (FDI), and a low impact of such investment on growth. The paper focuses on sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries and o...

Business Cycle Synchronization and Patterns of Trade: Cases from Gulf Cooperation Council Countries

 Do similarities in trade patterns of GCC countries (UAE, KSA, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Oman), which are geographically and politically alike and also enjoy oil income, affect the synchronization of their business cycles and make them have similar booms and busts? In this paper, we attempt to connect these two features and explore this question. Using various estimation methods (Common Corre...