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International integration and regional inequalities : how important is national infrastructure ?

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  • BEHRENS, Kristian

Abstract

We investigate how international trade and trade policy possibly affect the regional distribution of economic activities within a country involved in a process of economic integration. Our analysis reveals that the impact of decreasing international trade costs on the spatial distribution of economic activities strongly depends on the structure of trade flows and the value of transport costs internal to the country. Whereas trade liberalization in developing countries with poor infrastructure and mostly autarkic regions may exacerbate spatial inequalities, countries with better infrastructure and larger volumes ofinterregional trade may experience a more balanced geographical development.

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  • BEHRENS, Kristian, 2004. "International integration and regional inequalities : how important is national infrastructure ?," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 2004066, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
  • Handle: RePEc:cor:louvco:2004066
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    trade liberalization; regional integration; transport costs; trade costs; economic geography;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D11 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Theory
    • F12 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Models of Trade with Imperfect Competition and Scale Economies; Fragmentation
    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets
    • R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)

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