Although there is evidence that domestic politics matter for the formation of preferential trade agreements, the impact of large-scale changes in political institutions, especially in the direction of democratization, on economic integration has been given surprisingly short shrift in the previous literature. This study takes a first step toward developing such an explanation. It posits that, a...

For over three decades Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries have had an interest in regional integration initiatives to accelerate their industrialization and growth. The projects proposed to foster integration encompass a broad range of initiatives such as: (i) the development of regional ports to help African countries effectively utilize modern shipping technologies, and realize economies of ...

One of the most striking development in the world trading system since the mid 1990s is a surge in Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs). From about 50 till 1990, the number of RTAs notified to the World Trade Organization (WTO) has crossed 250 in 2003 and estimates indicate that over 300 RTAs will be in effect by 2007. Initially WTO encouraged the growth of RTAs because it believed that regional in...

Using a panel data set of bilateral export flows from 12 EU countries to 20 OECD trading partners over the period 1992-2003, a panel cointegration approach to estimating the gravity model is adopted to test for the significance of European regional integration. A comparison of the results indicates that a positive and significant coefficient estimate of the EU dummy variable is found for both t...

This article evaluates the extent to which the establishment of the Andean Free Trade Zone (AFTZ) has led to an improvement of intra-regional trade, as promised by open regionalism, without reducing extra-regional trade. Open regionalism is a dynamic process in which economic agreements serve as intermediate steps towards integration with the world economy. The calculations of ex post income el...

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Regional economic integration has a fairly long history in virtually all parts of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). A number of leaders called for the integration of Africa already soon after independence, but it was only in the 1970s and 1980s that concrete steps were taken to re-launch or establish economic integration institutions in all sub-regions. The first generation regional integration schemes...