The Doha multilateral round of trade negotiations sponsored by the WTO has been dragging on for over a decade, with no end in sight. In this short paper we assess empirically what determines the duration of trade negotiations, focusing on the span between the start of trade talks and their...

The ASEAN+3 proposal has attracted attention in Asia and the world. We argue that a free trade agreement (FTA) for ASEAN+3 is beneficial to all member countries due to three factors: (i) existing and expected vertical foreign direct investment linkage between Japan/Korea and ASEAN member...

This study extends previous research by comparing banks across European Union (EU) accession and non-accession countries of central-eastern Europe in order to detect differences that perhaps have implications related to policy prescriptions for joining the EU. Using commercial banking data from...

We consider some of the important economic constraints faced by landlocked economies in a game theoretic framework that involves its neighbor that has access to the ocean. We identify the strengths that the landlocked economy might have or develop through policy in order to negotiate with its...

The principal goal of integration in Europe has always been the safeguarding of peace through economic integration. The European Union (EU) has overseen splendid economic achievements. A sign of that great success has been the EU’s continuous enlargement. The eurozone is the crown jewel in the...

International economic integration has been a central policy goal for the Vietnam government since the doi moi reform was initiated in 1986. We explore the Vietnamese increasing integration into the world market and bouts of high inflation. Five price transmission models using three levels of...

Whether international economic integration arrangements result in a more liberal trade at the multilateral level cannot be proven with ease. Integration may start this process, but it may also reverse it. New mega-integration deals such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, Regional Comprehensive...

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....

This paper develops new measures of multimodal transport connectivity, and uses a gravity model to show that improving performance could lead to major trade gains for the Asia-Pacific region. By improving multimodal connectivity by 5%, APEC would increase exports by around 4%, or between 2% and...

This paper compares free trade areas and customs unions in terms of their potential to liberalize trade. While neither arrangement is shown to be unambiguously preferable, this paper generates specific conditions that determine when customs unions are preferred to free trade areas. The ranking...