To explain the links between population distribution and economic integration, we construct a spatial economics model with endogenous fertility. A higher population concentration increases real wages and child-raising costs, thus lowering the fertility rate. However, people migrate to more populated regions to obtain higher real wages. We show that mobility across regions results in more people...

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In this paper the gravity equation is used to analyse the impact on trade flows of different types of RIAs. Special emphasis is devoted to the test of the natural bloc hypothesis as well as the comparison of different degrees of integration. The empirical analysis has shown that RIAs have a strong impact in determining trade flows. Particularly, the effects on intra-regional trade are shown to ...

This dissertation asks the question to what extent functional policy-making authority allocations determine the applying of successful policy instruments by local governments in optimising their ability to provide local public goods given system specific transaction costs. I will develop a model to formulate the contextual relations and the behavioral uncertainties related to the employment of ...

This paper examines the impact of various trade policies for small developing states in the face of a changing world, including globalization, proliferation of regional integration agreements (RIAs), the changing relationship between ACP countries and the EU (the Cotonou Agreement), the erosion of ACP preferences in the EU market, the EBA, and the FTAA negotiations. The paper concludes that: i)...

In the fast globalizing world, the combined effect of small market size, weak institutions, low human development, worsening terms of trade, persistent conflict and poor investment climate, pan-African cooperation as enshrined in the African Economic Community and NEPAD has been designated by African governments as the best overall framework for accelerating African development in the 21 centur...

This paper analyzes the e¤ects of the formation of a regional trade agreement on the level and nature of multinational …rm activity. We examine aggregate data that captures the response of U.S. multinational …rms to the formation of the ASEAN free trade agreement. Observed patterns guide the development of a model in which heterogeneous …rms from a source country decide how to serve two foreign...

today regional integration has become the main source of concern for governments. in the era of globalization different parts of the world have formed regional groupings. realizing their geopolitical, geostrategic and geo-economic status, these regions have regional structures with various degrees of regionalism. geopolitical region of the caucasus is considered as one of the geopolitical regio...