Is the Growth of Regionalism as Significant as the Headlines Suggest? Lessons from Agricultural Trade

Jason Grant ()

No 142374, Working Papers from Canadian Agricultural Trade Policy Research Network

Abstract: The proliferation of regional trade agreements (RTAs) has motivated a significant number of ex post econometric studies investigating their agricultural trade impacts. The general conclusion is that RTAs increase members’ trade by as much as 150 percent, on average. In this article, we demonstrate that previous empirical work likely misrepresents the impact of RTAs because of considerable heterogeneity in the depth of economic integration pursued by these agreements. Contrary to previous studies, the results reveal that RTAs are not universally trade creating, and some agreements appear to provide very little benefit. “Deep integration agreements”, on the other hand, are largely responsible for the impressive agricultural trade flow increases reported in the literature. Testing the hierarchy of RTAs largely confirms the theory: the benefits of regionalism are an increasing function of the depth of economic integration.

Keywords: Agribusiness; Agricultural and Food Policy; International Relations/Trade (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 39
Date: 2012-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr and nep-int
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Is the growth of regionalism as significant as the headlines suggest? Lessons from agricultural trade (2013)
Working Paper: Is the Growth of Regionalism as Significant as the Headlines Suggest? Lessons from Agricultural Trade (2012)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:catpwp:142374

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.142374

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