Considering the third-country effects on bilateral incentives to sign a new PTA, we develop a theory-based empirical approach to access how a country's pre-existing PTAs affect her formation of a new PTA. Our empirical analysis using the theory-based measures of these effects confirms that a...

We show that multilateral tariff binding liberalization substantially impacts the nature and extent of Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) formation. First, it shapes the nature of forces constraining expansion of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). The constraining force is a free riding incentive of...

We study how a preferential trade agreement (PTA) affects international sourcing decisions, aggregate productivity and welfare under incomplete contracting and endogenous matching. Contract incompleteness implies underinvestment. That inefficiency is mitigated by a PTA, because the agreement...