In this paper, we develop a theoretical model that provides an additional explanation for the forest transition based on a trade liberalisation scenario. Furthermore, in contrast with most explanations, in which the forest transition can only take place at a local level at the expense of other...

Where economic activity will locate in the future is one of the most important questions in economics. Even though advances in technology have reduced the cost of transport, communication and information gathering and processing, hence curtailing the distance penalty, local proximity (clusters)...

For developing countries, a technological catch-up is sometimes a prerequisite for endorsement of trade agreements. This paper compares sequential trade liberalization through a preferential trade agreement (PTA) and one-shot multilateral trade liberalization with respect to the speed with which...

Neither of the major negotiations underway in the Asia-Pacific region, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, includes both China and the United States. By failing to connect these economies, these agreements would leave much of the economic and...

The paper first demonstrates that in a simple asymmetric n-country world with Cournot competition, constant returns and linear demand, free trade can reduce world welfare as well as total output and consumer surplus. We then derive precise conditions for free trade to raise a country's welfare,...

Much potential for trade liberalization exists in industries and markets with trade barriers that are prohibitive for all or many firms. In standard political economic theories of trade policy, observed prohibitive barriers must be globally optimal according to static government preferences,...

Globalization disrupted the seemingly solid construction emerged in the aftermath of WW II, called the international trade system. For over fifty years, the system grew constantly thanks to the increasing number of countries that joint it as well as to its ubiquitously-accepted rules. For better...

Much potential for trade liberalization exists in industries and markets with trade barriers that are prohibitive for all or many firms. In standard political economic theories of trade policy, observed prohibitive barriers must be globally optimal according to both individual and joint...

This paper is concerned with the sustainability of free-trade agreements (FTA). FTA sustainability is influenced by governments' valuations of political contributions, discount factors, the lobbying position of the specific-interest groups in the intra-industry trade sectors, and the sectoral...

The estimated effects of distance in empirical international trade regressions are unrealistically high. Using state-and-sector level U.S. exports data, this paper shows analytically and proves empirically that ignoring the internal location of production (of international exports), which leads...