The paper studies the effects of regional integration on the incentives of mem - bers and non-members to undertake multilateral trade liberalization. Using a three- country political economy model with imperfect competion, it shows how regionalism can undermine support for multilateralism....

We consider the impact of preferential trade agreements (PTAs) on horizontal foreign direct investment (FDI) coming from parent countries outside the PTA. While easier access to a larger market due to a PTA may justify new FDI, preexisting investments may be rationalized as firms concentrate...

This paper analyses the basic labour market inter-dependencies among coun - tries with intra-industrial trade and imper fectly competitive product and labour markets. The paper stresses two major channels through which increased integration may affect product markets and therefore in turn labour...

This paper provides a new model of firm’s location choices. It integrates a Ricardian model of comparative advantage with the location effects deriving from trade costs, increasing returns to scale, product dif ferentiation, and monopolistic competition. In a two-region,...

Traditional push-and-pull factors offered partial explanations to the size of large urban areas in the third world. Moreover, the growing literature in eco - nomic geography identifies an additional factor exacerbating the phenomenon, namely trade costs. The present study tests econometrically...

This paper corrects a shortcoming in the literature on computable general equilibrium models and imperfect competition with free entry and increasing returns to scale. The trade integration simulations applied to the US suggest that the shortcoming is quantitatively insignificant if key...

This paper examines the impact of market integration in the presence of a labor union. Effects on wages, employment, product price, firm profits, and union rents are analyzed. Both the theoretical model as well as numerical sim - ulations show the importance of factors such as the product demand...

When the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) formally adopted the principle of “open regionalism” (OR) in its trade liberalization in 1991, many were optimistic that this approach suggested the bloc as a stepping stone toward global free trade. This optimistic view was reinforced by the...

Public-sector purchases from private firms account for over 10 percent of GDP in most developed countries, and they are typically biased in favour of domestic suppliers. This paper explores the impact of discriminatory public procurement on the location of industries. Our main theoretical...

This paper proposes a decomposition of the likely effects of a “deep” regional integration arrangement for a small country. It is based on a steady-state general equilibrium model which allows to capture the long-term effects of a variety of factors, including the reduction of non-tariff...