We study the effects of free trade areas on bilateral trade flows. We review and extend the previous empirical literature by embarking on the modelling of unobserved heterogeneity. We apply our preferred model to the case of the Asean Free Trade Area (AFTA). The estimation results suggest that...

We consider the 'final' (deciding) set in a tennis match. We examine whether it is true that the chances for both players to win the match are equal at the beginning of the final set, even though they were not equal at the beginning of the match. We also test whether it is easier for an unseeded...

We investigate the consequences of an increase in public spending for trade balances and budget deficits in the European Union, using a panel vector auto-regression approach. Whereas the literature tends to treat the trade balance/GDP ratio as a single variable, we include exports and imports as...