Multilateral Trade Liberalization and Political Disintegration : Implications for the Evolution of Free Trade Aareas and Customs Unions

Schiff, Maurice

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: ANDEAN PACT;    ANTI-MARKET POLICIES;    ANTI-TRADE;    BLOC WELFARE;    CAPITAL GOODS;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-2350
RP-ID  :  WPS2350

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

The author combines two theories - oneabout how multilateral trade liberalization affects regionalintegration, the other about how it affects politicaldisintegration - to explain why the ratio of free tradeareas to customs unions has increased over time. Ethierargues (1998, 1999) that multilateral trade liberalizationled to the recent wave of regional integration arrangements.Alesina and others (1997), in discussing the number and sizeof countries, argue that multilateral trade liberalizationleads to political disintegration, with an increase in thenumber of countries. Combining the two arguments, the authorhypothesizes that as multilateral trade liberalizationproceeds, and the number of regional integrationarrangements increases, the ratio of free trade areas tocustoms unions also increases. The data, which show thatratio increasing in the 1990s, are consistent with the hypothesis.