The impact of FTAs on MENA trade in agricultural and industrial products

Maria Dolores Parra, Inmaculada Martínez Zarzoso and Celestino Suárez Burguet
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Inmaculada Martínez-Zarzoso

Working Papers from Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Department of Economics

Abstract: This paper analyses the impact of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) on Middle East and North African Countries (MENA) trade for the period 1994-2010. The analysis distinguishes between industrial and agricultural trade to take into account the different liberalisation schedules. An augmented gravity model is estimated using up-to-date panel data techniques to control for all time-invariant bilateral factors that influence bilateral trade as well as for the so-called multilateral resistance factors. We also control for the endogeneity of the agreements and test for self-selection bias due to the presence of zero trade in our sample. The main findings indicate that North-South-FTAs and South-South- FTAs have a differential impact in terms of increasing trade in MENA countries, with the former being more beneficial in terms of exports for MENA countries, but both showing greater global market integration. We also find that FTAs that include agricultural products, in which MENA countries have a clear comparative advantage, have more favourable effects for these countries than those only including industrial products. JEL code: F10, F15

Keywords: Negocis; Finances internacionals; Integració econòmica; 339 - Comerç. Relacions econòmiques internacionals. Economia mundial. Màrqueting (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-ara and nep-int
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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http://hdl.handle.net/2072/250131

Related works:
Journal Article: The impact of FTAs on MENA trade in agricultural and industrial products (2016)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:urv:wpaper:2072/250131

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