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Trade Agreements and International Comovements: the Case of NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement)

Author

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  • Maria Bejan

    (Rice University)

Abstract

Business cycles correlation between Mexico and the US changed from being on a downward sloping path before 1992 to an upward sloping path after that. This paper suggests that the North American Free Trade Agreement could be the explanation. NAFTA generated not only an increase in the volume of trade but also a change in the elasticity of substitution between imports and exports. The paper tests this hypothesis using the neoclassical business cycles model. Although there are still some discrepancies between the theory and data in the degree of correlation, the direction of change in the model corresponds to the one in the data. (Copyright: Elsevier)

Suggested Citation

  • Maria Bejan, 2011. "Trade Agreements and International Comovements: the Case of NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement)," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 14(4), pages 667-685, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:red:issued:07-86
    DOI: 10.1016/j.red.2011.06.003
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Hideaki Hirata & M. Ayhan Kose & Chris Otrok, "undated". "Regionalization vs. Globalization," Working Paper 164456, Harvard University OpenScholar.
    3. Yujing Wang & Fu Ren & Ruoxin Zhu & Qingyun Du, 2020. "An Exploratory Analysis of Networked and Spatial Characteristics of International Natural Resource Trades (2000–2016)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-34, September.
    4. Vatsa, Puneet, 2021. "Have Business Cycles Become More Synchronous After NAFTA?," American Business Review, Pompea College of Business, University of New Haven, vol. 24(1), pages 54-66, May.
    5. Francisco Callado-Muñoz & Jana Hromcová & Natalia Utrero-González, 2014. "Openness and Technology Diffusion in Payment Systems: The Case of NAFTA," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 43(4), pages 497-519, April.
    6. Baghestani, Hamid & Toledo, Hugo, 2019. "Oil prices and real exchange rates in the NAFTA region," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 253-264.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    NAFTA; International business cycles; Comovements;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • E37 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Forecasting and Simulation: Models and Applications
    • F02 - International Economics - - General - - - International Economic Order and Integration
    • F15 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Economic Integration

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