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 European Union (EU) has a splendid record concerning enlargement. Judging by the increasing number of EU member countries, enlargement has been the most successful EU policy ever. The economic side of its eastern enlargement is, however, a hybrid bag of effects for the EU’s eastern...

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....

Traditional economic integration theory states that the formation of and economic union will effect both the member and non-member countries. This paper adds to traditional theory on economic integration by studying how non-member countries carry out their monetary policy in order tp counter...

Theory is ambiguous as to how globalization influences the relative performances of rich and poor countries. This paper surveys some recent literature on the historical links between international commodity and factor market integration and convergence. Focussing on the late 19th century, a...

I. Background : Trilateral cooperation goes back 12 years ago, when the leaders of the three countries had an informal breakfast meeting on the occasion of the ASEAN+3 in November 1999. This was the first meeting among the heads of governments of these three countries in modern times....

Non-transparency is a term given in this paper to a set of government policies that increase the risk and uncertainty faced by economic actors (foreign investors). The higher in risk and uncertainty stem from the presence of bribery and corruption, unstable economic policies, weak and poorly...

A modified gravity model of international trade is used to evaluate determi - nants of flows of commodities most often traded in the Pacific Rim. It is shown that the gravity model can be reparameterized effectively by using time series and cross section data rather than using cross section data...

In 1965, Cooper and Massell (CM), using a partial-equilibrium trade model, reached the conclusion that a policy of unilateral tariff reduction (UTR) is superior to the formation of a customs union (CU). Wonnacott and Wonnacott (WW) challenged this conclusion in 1981 by claiming to show that UTR...

This paper explores the interaction between labor market deregulation, monetary union and unemployment. Monetary policy autonomy and monetary union are compared in their influence on the optimal level of labor market deregulation consented to and wages demanded by labor unions. EMU leads to...