On the bilateral trade effects of free trade agreements between the EU-15 and the CEEC-4 countries

The expansion of regionalism has spawned an extensive theoretical literature analysing the effects of free trade agreements (FTAs) on trade flows. In this paper we focus on FTAs (also called European agreements) between the European Union (EU-15) and the Central and Eastern European countries (CEEC-4, i.e. Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland and Romania) and model their effects on trade flows by treating the agreement variable as endogenous. Our theoretical framework is the gravity model, and the econometric method used to isolate and eliminate the potential endogeneity bias of the agreement variable is the fixed effect vector decomposition (FEVD) technique. Our estimation results indicate a positive and significant impact of FTAs on trade flows. This finding is robust to the inclusion in the sample of a group of control countries (specifically Belarus, the Russian Federation and the Ukraine) that did not sign an FTA. Besides, we show that trade growth after the FTA agreement with the EU was signed exceeded trade growth of the control group of countries, which did not become members.

Free Trade Agreements and Foreign Direct Investment: The Role of Endogeneity and Dynamics

This article studies the impact of Free Trade Agreements (FTA) on outbound foreign direct investment (FDI). From one perspective, FTA may promote FDI since FTA aim to promote economic activity between countries. However, lower trade barriers may lower the incentive of firms to conduct FDI. Therefore, the net impact is an empirical question. Using a panel of countries for the years 1990–2006, this article effectively controls for participation in an FTA when analyzing the impact on outbound FDI. The lengthy time series also allows us to examine effectively the dynamic nature of the relationship. Failing to account for endogeneity and dynamics would likely generate inaccurate conclusions regarding the impact of FTA on outbound FDI. Our analysis finds that outbound FDI is either unrelated to participation in an FTA or is negatively affected.     

Effects of regional integration on FDI: An empirical approach

This study uses an augmented gravity model to capture the effect of regional economic integration on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) flows in the cases of the EU, NAFTA, MERCOSUR, and ASEAN. Three important conclusions emerge: (i) regional integration has had a positive and significant effect on FDI, which is a combination of investment creation and diversion; (ii) investment diversion does occur in a significant number of cases, and hence it is a legitimate cause for concern, especially among developing countries that are not part of a regional grouping with at least one developed country; and (iii) FDI acts as a substitute for trade in a significant number of cases, although in some cases, it complements trade.     

Vertical trade and free trade agreements

We investigate the effects of free trade agreements (FTAs) on tariffs and welfare in vertical trade. We consider a three-country model, where an FTA is formed between a country exporting a final good and a country exporting an intermediate good. The FTA unambiguously leads to a reduction in the member country’s tariff, but may cause the non-member country’s tariff level to increase. In the case, where FTA raises the non-member country’s tariff level, the FTA increases that country’s welfare. In contrast, the FTA may render its member countries better off. This result implies that the formation of an FTA may not always be Pareto-improving.     

Rules of origin and technology spillovers from foreign direct investment under international duopoly

Using a simple three-country model of international duopoly, this study analyzes the optimal choice of rules of origin (ROO) in a free trade area/agreement (FTA) when firms from outside the FTA must undertake foreign direct investment (FDI) in FTA countries and conduct part of their production process within the FTA to comply with the ROO. FDI causes spillovers of the superior production technology from a non-FTA firm to its competitor within the FTA, depending on how much of the production process is shifted to the FTA area. In this situation, this study predicts that as the degree of multilateral trade liberalization before formation of the FTA is higher, the optimal ROO tends to be less stringent.     

Exporter responses to FTA tariff preferences: evidence from Thailand

This paper focuses on how exporters respond to free trade agreement (FTA) preferential schemes by analysing the administrative records of FTA implementation at the product level in Thailand. The key finding is that while there is growth in the number of FTAs with a potentially larger membership than existing FTAs, firms tend to prioritise existing FTAs. Moreover, only a narrow range of products are involved in applications for FTA preferential schemes. As a result, only one‐third of exports are covered by such arrangements. The key determinants of firms applying for preferential schemes include tariff margins, the ability to comply with rules of origins (ROOs) and the economic fundamentals influencing trade. Hence, it is less likely for FTAs to open up export opportunities for products that are either yet to be traded or of low prospective trade volume. Estimates of the costs of complying with ROOs average 8.6 per cent of tariff equivalence. The cost approaches zero for developed countries but is substantially higher for developing nations. The key policy inference is that the export‐enhancing effects of FTAs are passive at best, working only after economic fundamentals are established. For us to harness the trade‐inducing effects of FTAs, reducing costs incurred from the presence of ROOs from both exporting and importing countries should be the prime focus.     

南南型区域经济一体化能否促进FDI流入?——中国-东盟自由贸易区引资效应分析

随着区域经济一体化程度的加深,发展中国家逐渐将吸引FDI作为参与区域经济一体化的主要目标。本文以古诺数量竞争模型为基础构建了一个三国模型,指出区内贸易壁垒下降可以促进跳过关税型投资和重组性平台投资。通过对中国、东盟地区1992年——2004年FDI影响因素进行检验,指出市场规模、进口额、工资水平、对区内市场的开放程度等因素对FDI流入有影响。中国一东盟自由贸易区通过影响上述因素而提高区位优势,促进区内FDI流入的整体水平,同时中国相对于东盟国家的优势可以使一体化条件下厂商增加在中国的重组性投资。     

TOWARD A PAN‐ARAB FREE TRADE AREA: ASSESSING TRADE POTENTIAL EFFECTS OF THE AGADIR AGREEMENT

On February 25, 2004, a free trade agreement (FTA) was concluded between Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia, as a first step toward the implementation of a larger Pan‐Arab FTA. This paper proposes an estimation of the trade potential among these countries. Based on new developments of the gravity equation, we estimate a static and dynamic panel data model, using respectively the Hausman and Taylor, and the Arellano, Bond, and Bover's estimators. Results show that trade flows remain dramatically low between these countries, as a result of high trade costs. In particular, the estimated border effects clearly reflect a significant trade integration deficit in this area. However, there is only a limited export potential between these countries, due to the lack of trade complementarity between them. As a consequence, the Agadir Agreement may only have limited trade effects.     

The determinants of FTA use in Southeast Asia: A firm-level analysis

The spread of free trade agreements (FTAs) in Southeast Asia has ignited a debate about their impact on enterprises including the business costs from the Asian ‘noodle bowl’ effect. This paper undertakes a comparative and firm-level analysis of the determinants of FTA use in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. The likelihood of firms using important ASEAN+1 FTAs (e.g. the ASEAN-China FTA, the ASEAN-Japan FTA and ASEAN-Korea FTA) is positively associated with acquiring knowledge about FTAs, building technological capabilities, and membership in industrial clusters. Non-use of FTAs is explained by a lack of information about FTAs and the absence of FTAs with major trading partners. Key policy implications are the need to improve business support for FTAs, to conclude FTAs with major trading partners, and to create a database on FTA preference use.     

Heterogeneous effects of bilateral investment treaties

Bilateral investment treaties (BITs) are an increasingly used policy instrument to encourage FDI inflows, particularly inflows into developing countries. In this paper we estimate a gravity model of FDI flows from a sample of OECD countries to a broader sample of developing economies, examining the impact of BITs on these flows. BITs are signed between highly heterogeneous country-pairs, with important differences found in terms of the institutional and economic distance between BIT signatories. These differences may help explain the mixed results on the effects of BITs on FDI flows in the existing literature, with our exploration of non-linearities in this relationship suggesting that the effects of BITs are increasing in the difference in GDP and GDP per capita between source and host. BITs appear to have no impact upon FDI flows for country-pairs that are too dissimilar in terms of the strength of their political institutions.     

Do Free Trade Agreements Increase the New Goods Margin? Evidence from Korea

We analyze the changes in the composition of bilateral trade—and more specifically, in the new goods margin—following the free trade agreements (FTAs) signed by Korea between 2004 and 2008. We find that new goods trade increased disproportionately after the FTAs came into effect, and that least-traded goods (LTG)—those accounting for the lowest 10% of trade prior to the FTAs—ended up accounting for 37% of post-FTA trade with FTA partners. In contrast, the corresponding share for a comparable group of countries that did not sign FTAs with Korea was only half as large, averaging close to 20%. We also find that only less than 2% of all least-traded products accounted for most of the growth in LTG trade, and that those goods tended to be clustered in the same industries as the intensively-traded goods. Furthermore, a larger fraction of LTG became heavily traded for the case of FTA partners than for non-FTA countries. Finally, we find evidence that least-traded imports were subject to higher pre-FTA tariff protection than other products.     

Impacts of common rules of origin on FTA utilization

This study empirically examines the impacts of sharing rules of origin (RoOs) with other ASEAN?+?1 free trade agreements (FTAs) on ASEAN–Korea FTA/ASEAN–China FTA utilization in Thai exports in 2011. Our detailed empirical analysis suggests that the harmonization of RoOs across FTAs plays some role in terms of reducing the costs yielded through the spaghetti bowl phenomenon. In particular, the harmonization to “change-in-tariff classification (CTC) or regional value content (RVC)” will play a relatively positive role in not seriously discouraging firms’ use of multiple FTA schemes. In contrast, harmonization to “CTC” or “CTC and RVC” hinders firms from using those schemes.     

FDI promotion through bilateral investment treaties: more than a bit?

Policy makers in developing countries have increasingly pinned their hopes on bilateral investment treaties (BITs) in order to improve their chances in the worldwide competition for foreign direct investment (FDI). However, the effectiveness of BITs in inducing higher FDI inflows is still open to debate. It is in several ways that we attempt to clarify the inconclusive empirical findings of earlier studies. We cover a much larger sample of host and source countries by drawing on an extensive data set on bilateral FDI flows. Furthermore, we account for unilateral FDI liberalization, in order not to overestimate the effect of BITs, as well as for the potential endogeneity of BITs. Employing a gravity-type model and various model specifications, including an instrumental variable approach, we find that BITs do promote FDI flows to developing countries. BITs may even substitute for weak domestic institutions, though probably not for unilateral capital account liberalization.     

Technology diffusion and host–country productivity in South-South FDI flows

This paper investigates the effects of foreign direct investment (FDI) on the host country's economic performance, namely, its total factor productivity (TFP). Such effects are often referred to as FDI externalities or spillover effects. In addition, the paper examines whether such spillover effects depend on the home country's income level. Our empirical findings indicate that FDI flows have positive effects on less developed countries (South countries), and that the effect of FDI flows from the developed countries (North countries) is stronger than that from less developed countries. That is, these results confirm the so-called North-South effects but provide no evidence of South-South effects. Furthermore, another channel of spillover effects is imports, which have significant effects on TFP.     

Regional integration in Asia and its effects on the EU and North America

Consequences of free-trade agreements (FTAs) among the ASEAN+3 and ASEAN+6 countries are explored using a dynamic computable general equilibrium (CGE) model. Quantitative assessments of intra- and extra-regional effects on welfare, trade and output are offered. When both trade facilitation and endogenously determined productivity are included in the FTA scenarios, Singapore, other ASEAN countries and China would be able to realize relatively large welfare gains, while the welfare effects on the EU and North America are negligible. The trade and output effects on the latter two regions are also relatively small, with the notable exception of crops, other than rice, in North America.     

日本对外直接投资的贸易效应及其启示

对外直接投资的贸易效应是学界研究的一个重要课题,日本对外直接投资与贸易的密切关系也备受关注。本文将日本的主要贸易伙伴分为四组,实证分析日本对外直接投资的贸易效应发现:日本的对外直接投资是贸易互补型的,其对日本的进出口贸易具有明显的长期促进作用;日本的对外直接投资是引起其贸易顺差的一个重要因素,日本对美国等对日贸易逆差国的直接投资扩大了其与这组国家的贸易顺差;日本对NIEs、中国等的直接投资并不是导致日本产业空心化的主要原因。实证结论在利用对外直接投资带动出口贸易、减少贸易摩擦以及在对外转移产业时避免国内产业空心化等方面为我国的实践提供了借鉴。     

东亚双边出口贸易流量与潜力:贸易引力模型的实证研究

本文利用东亚1995-2004年面板数据建立东亚贸易引力模型,对东亚区域内出口贸易流量的影响因素和潜力进行研究。研究显示,经济规模、中国-中国香港地区更紧密经贸关系(CEPA)、中国-东盟自由贸易区(ACFTA)、经济制度、经济发展水平差距、国际直接投资、国家间地理距离和金融危机是东亚双边出口贸易流量的主要影响因素。     

APEC成员间建立FTA的影响因素研究

本文使用Probit模型对APEC成员间建立FTA的影响因素进行了经验分析。一个国家在决定是否与其他国家结成FTA时,从长期来看主要考虑其是否会带来本国经济福利的改善。纯经济因素准确预测了APEC成员间59个已经形成的FTA中的51个和151个尚未结成的FTA中的146个。与以往的研究不同,本文额外考察了生产者服务在长期内对于FTA形成的影响,以及社会和政治因素在短期内对于FTA形成的影响。     

The Global Financial Crisis and Sub‐Saharan Africa: The Effects of Slowing Private Capital Inflows on Growth*

Abstract: This paper uses the bias‐corrected least‐squares dummy variable (LSDV) estimator to examine the relationship between economic growth and four different types of private capital inflows (cross‐border bank lending, foreign direct investment (FDI), bonds flows and portfolio equity flows) on a sample of 15 selected sub‐Saharan African countries over the period 1980–2008. Our results show that FDI and cross‐border bank lending exert a significant and positive impact on sub‐Saharan Africa's growth, whereas portfolio equity flows and bonds flows have no growth impact. Our estimates suggest that a drop by 10 per cent in FDI inflows may lead to a 3 per cent decrease of income per capita growth in sub‐Saharan Africa, and a 10 per cent decrease in cross‐border bank lending may reduce growth by up to 1.5 per cent. Therefore, the global financial crisis is likely to have an important effect on sub‐Saharan Africa's growth through the private capital inflows channel.     

Free Trade Agreements and the SADC Economies

Countries in southern Africa have engaged in a variety of tradeliberalisation initiatives such as the European Union (EU)–SouthAfrica Free Trade Agreement (FTA), the EU's ‘Everythingbut Arms’ (EBA) initiative to eliminate trade barriersagainst imports from the least developed countries and a potentialFTA among Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries.In this paper we use a multi-country computable general equilibrium(CGE) model to analyse the impact of trade liberalisation inthe region. First, we analyse the FTA between South Africa andthe EU. Then, we consider how the rest of southern Africa mightrespond: (i) by enforcing an SADC FTA; (ii) by exploiting theadvantages of unilateral access to the EU in addition to anSADC FTA; and (iii) by entering an FTA with the EU and otherSADC countries. The scenarios are ordered such that the SADCcountries pursue increased trade liberalisation. We find thatunder all FTA arrangements the increased total imports fromFTA partners exceeds the reduction in imports from non-FTA partners— the FTAs examined are all net trade creating. Some SADCeconomies are slightly hurt by the FTA between the EU and SouthAfrica, while others gain slightly. Overall, the agreement isnot a beggar-thy-neighbour policy. We also find that unilateralaccess to the EU is more beneficial for SADC countries thanan SADC FTA because the SADC countries trade more with the EUthan with each other. However, reciprocal reforms under an EU–SADCFTA dominate unilateral access to the EU because they requiremore structural adjustment in the SADC countries. Finally, wefind that South Africa is not large enough to serve as a growthpole for the region. Access to EU markets provides substantiallybigger gains for the other SADC countries than access to SouthAfrica.