IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/fortra/v56y2021i1p60-70.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Evaluating Asian Free Trade Agreements: What Does Gravity Model Tell Us?

Author

Listed:
  • Sunder Ramaswamy
  • Abishek Choutagunta
  • Santosh Kumar Sahu

Abstract

This paper evaluates the performance of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) by analysing the determinants of trade flows of Asian economies for a panel of 31 countries during 2007–2014 using a Gravity model. The estimated results suggest that certain FTAs negatively contribute to trade flows across the region and, that GDP and population, among other factors, can explain total trade flows. This study also finds that trade costs using distance as a proxy has a significant and negative effect on trade. Our results are in-line with the expectations which can be drawn by looking at trends of trade flows in Asia. Thus, a case is attempted for smoothening trade-flows across the region by reducing tariff and non-tariff barriers, pumping in investments on transport infrastructure and improving productivity of the partners as a whole which has positive effects on GDP and thus trade. JEL Codes: F13, F14, C23

Suggested Citation

  • Sunder Ramaswamy & Abishek Choutagunta & Santosh Kumar Sahu, 2021. "Evaluating Asian Free Trade Agreements: What Does Gravity Model Tell Us?," Foreign Trade Review, , vol. 56(1), pages 60-70, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:fortra:v:56:y:2021:i:1:p:60-70
    DOI: 10.1177/0015732520961330
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0015732520961330
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0015732520961330?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anderson, Kym & Strutt, Anna, 2011. "Asia's Changing Role in World Trade: Prospects for South - South Trade Growth to 2030," ADB Economics Working Paper Series 264, Asian Development Bank.
    2. Andrew K. Rose, 2004. "Do We Really Know That the WTO Increases Trade?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(1), pages 98-114, March.
    3. Bhattacharyya Ranajoy & Banerjee, Tathagata, 2006. "Does the Gravity Model Explain India Direction of Trade? A Panel Data Approach," IIMA Working Papers WP2006-09-01, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Research and Publication Department.
    4. Subramanian, Arvind & Wei, Shang-Jin, 2007. "The WTO promotes trade, strongly but unevenly," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(1), pages 151-175, May.
    5. Sushil Kumar & Shahid Ahmed, 2015. "Gravity Model by Panel Data Approach," Foreign Trade Review, , vol. 50(4), pages 233-249, November.
    6. Baier, Scott L. & Bergstrand, Jeffrey H., 2007. "Do free trade agreements actually increase members' international trade?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(1), pages 72-95, March.
    7. Amita Batra, 2004. "India's global trade potential: The gravity model approach," Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, New Delhi Working Papers 151, Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, New Delhi, India.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sharadendu Sharma & Rahul Arora, 2023. "Macroeconomic Determinants of India’s Participation in Global Value Chains: An Empirical Evidence," Journal of Asian Economic Integration, , vol. 5(1), pages 7-28, April.
    2. Koffi Dumor & Yao Li & Ma Yongkai & Enock Mintah Ampaw & Hafez Komla Dumor, 2022. "Evaluating the belt and road initiative effects on trade and migration: Evidence from the East African community," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 34(1), pages 16-28, March.
    3. Christopher M. Dent, 2021. "Trade, Climate and Energy: A New Study on Climate Action through Free Trade Agreements," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-30, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sunder Ramaswamy & Abishek Choutagunta & Santhosh K. Sahu, 2016. "Evaluating Asian FTAs: What do Gravity Equation Models Tell Us?," Working Papers id:11377, eSocialSciences.
    2. Dutt, Pushan & Mihov, Ilian & Van Zandt, Timothy, 2013. "The effect of WTO on the extensive and the intensive margins of trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(2), pages 204-219.
    3. Lorenzo Caliendo & Robert C. Feenstra & John Romalis & Alan M. Taylor, 2015. "Tariff Reductions, Entry, and Welfare: Theory and Evidence for the Last Two Decades," NBER Working Papers 21768, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Yoke Fong Kong & Richard Kneller, 2016. "Measuring the Impact of China's Export Growth on its Asian Neighbours," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(2), pages 195-220, February.
    5. Christian Elleby & Wusheng Yu & Qian Yu, 2018. "The Chinese Export Displacement Effect Revisited," IFRO Working Paper 2018/02, University of Copenhagen, Department of Food and Resource Economics.
    6. Ivan Montiel & Junghoon Park & Bryan W. Husted & Andres Velez-Calle, 2022. "Tracing the connections between international business and communicable diseases," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 53(8), pages 1785-1804, October.
    7. Campi, Mercedes & Dueñas, Marco, 2019. "Intellectual property rights, trade agreements, and international trade," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(3), pages 531-545.
    8. Cardamone, Paola, 2007. "A Survey of the Assessments of the Effectiveness of Preferential Trade Agreements using Gravity Models," Economia Internazionale / International Economics, Camera di Commercio Industria Artigianato Agricoltura di Genova, vol. 60(4), pages 421-473.
    9. Silviano Esteve-Pérez & Salvador Gil-Pareja & Rafael Llorca-Vivero, 2020. "Does the GATT/WTO promote trade? After all, Rose was right," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 156(2), pages 377-405, May.
    10. Handley, Kyle, 2014. "Exporting under trade policy uncertainty: Theory and evidence," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(1), pages 50-66.
    11. Gabriel J. Felbermayr & Mario Larch & Erdal Yalcin & Yoto V. Yotov, 2020. "On the Heterogeneous Trade and Welfare Effects of GATT/WTO Membership," CESifo Working Paper Series 8555, CESifo.
    12. Florian Mölders & Ulrich Volz, 2011. "Trade creation and the status of FTAs: empirical evidence from East Asia," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 147(3), pages 429-456, September.
    13. Theo S. Eicher & Christian Henn, 2011. "One Money, One Market: A Revised Benchmark," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(3), pages 419-435, August.
    14. Tristan Kohl & Steven Brakman & Harry Garretsen, 2016. "Do Trade Agreements Stimulate International Trade Differently? Evidence from 296 Trade Agreements," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(1), pages 97-131, January.
    15. Kazunobu Hayakawa & Hyun-Hoon Lee & Donghyun Park, 2014. "Are Investment Promotion Agencies Effective in Promoting Outward Foreign Direct Investment? The Cases of Japan and Korea," Asian Economic Journal, East Asian Economic Association, vol. 28(2), pages 111-138, June.
    16. Lee, Hyun-Hoon & Park, Donghyun & Wang, Jing, 2013. "Different types of firms, different types of products, and their dynamics: An anatomy of China's imports," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 62-77.
    17. Emanuel Ornelas & Marcos Ritel, 2020. "The not‐so‐generalised effects of the Generalized System of Preferences," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(7), pages 1809-1840, July.
    18. Gabriel Felbermayr & Wilhelm Kohler, 2014. "WTO Membership and the Extensive Margin of World Trade: New Evidence," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: European Economic Integration, WTO Membership, Immigration and Offshoring, chapter 5, pages 149-192, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    19. Gabriel Felbermayr & Wilhelm Kohler, 2010. "Modelling the Extensive Margin of World Trade: New Evidence on GATT and WTO Membership," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(11), pages 1430-1469, November.
    20. Eicher, Theo S. & Henn, Christian, 2011. "In search of WTO trade effects: Preferential trade agreements promote trade strongly, but unevenly," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(2), pages 137-153, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    International trade flows; gravity model; Asia; PPML;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations
    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:fortra:v:56:y:2021:i:1:p:60-70. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.