This paper reviews the theoretical and the empirical literature on regionalism. The formation of regional trade agreements has been, by far, the most popular form of reciprocal trade liberalization in the last fifteen years. The discriminatory character of these agreements has raised three main concerns: that trade diversion would be rampant, because special interest groups would induce governm...

This paper reviews international issues in the supply of tobacco and tobacco products, including trade liberalization and globalization. The paper begins with a brief discussion of the theoretical foundations for trade and trade restrictions. This is followed by a description of the treatment of tobacco and tobacco products in recent multi-lateral, regional and bilateral trade agreements, as we...

The extensive reform measures introduced in the early 90s in India provide a unique opportunity to study policy experiments aimed at reducing barriers to entry and increasing product market competition. We use a rich, comprehensive, plant-level dataset for the period 1986-87 to 1994-95 to identify the effects of de-licensing, liberalization of foreign direct investment (FDI) and the reduction o...

BACKGROUND This study investigates the health impacts of a major liberalization episode in the textile and clothing (T&C) sector. This episode triggered substantial shifts in employment across a wide range of countries. It is the first study to empirically link trade liberalization to health via changes in employment and offers some of the first empirical insights on how trade liberalization in...

Making Sense of Bolkestein-Bashing: Trade Liberalization under Segmented Labor Markets Trade liberalization is often met with sharp opposition. Recent examples include the so-called ''Bolkestein'' directive, which allows service providers from a given EU member to temporarily work in another member country. One way to view such a reform is that it simply widens the range of goods that are trade...

We study the interrelationship between capital °ows, returns, dividend yields and world interest rates in 20 emerging markets. We estimate a vector autoregression with these variables to measure the degree to which lower interest rates contribute to increased capital °ows and shocks in °ows a®ect the cost of capital among other dynamic relations. We precede the VAR analysis by a detailed examin...

In this paper, we merge the heterogenous firm model of Melitz (2003) with the Ricardian model of Dornbusch, Fisher and Samuelson (DFS 1977) to explain how the pattern of international specialization and trade is determined by the interaction of comparative advantage, economies of scale, country sizes and trade barriers. The model is able to capture the existence of inter-industry trade and intr...

One of the disputed consequences of global economic integration is the possible effect that foreign economic liberalization exerts on social cohesion. Proponents of commercial liberalism see stabilization as an indirect consequence of growing economic interdependence, while globalization critics are much more skeptical. They expect, at least during the liberalization process, destabilizing effe...

The world has witnessed an unparalleled increase in trade liberalization over the last few decades. These have been accompanied by increasing concerns over economic growth and distributional impacts emerging from trade agreements. An applied literature has emerged to address ex-ante effects at both macroeconomic and household levels. This article contributes to this literature by analyzing the ...