This paper constructs new measures of regional trading arrangement (RTA) membership based on the degree of integration and implementation. We find that RTAs create intra-bloc trade regardless of their type and that more integrated RTAs generate greater total trade creation

In this study, we use extreme bounds analysis to test the robustness of the hypothesis that regional trading arrangements (RTAs) are trade creating. Extreme bounds analysis provides a more rigorous test of specification uncertainty than traditional econometric theory by incorporating prior...

In this paper, we examine the robustness of variables used in the gravity model literature. We use a variant of Leamer's extreme-bounds analysis, which tracks the sign and significance level of the variable of interest to changes in the conditioning set of variables. Of the 47 variables...