Preferential trade agreements could lead to a reallocation of resources across sectors and countries. Production patterns resulting from North-North regional integration initiatives have been documented in several studies. However, empirical evidence on South-South trade agreements is limited....

I apply the fixed versus variable cost trade-off associated with a multinational firm’s choice between investing abroad and exporting to a setting where the multinational is located inside an economically integrating region. I find that reducing obstacles to investment unambiguously favours...