IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/jet/dpaper/dpaper835.html

The World of overlapping regions

Author

Listed:
  • Hamanaka, Shintaro

Abstract

The world is full of overlapping and nested regionalism. Why? This paper answers this question from the perspective of countries that aspire to leadership. We pay special attention to membership, which is a concept intrinsically linked to leadership via the key factor of “exclusion,” because the exclusion of rivals is necessary for a state to become a leader. Our main claim is that the creation of a regional group is a convenient and effective way to exclude rivals; hence regionalism proliferates. Borrowing ideas from the social psychology literature on the leadership aspirations of individuals, this paper develops theories of exclusionary regionalism, which explain countries’ effort to organize regional groups from which more powerful states are excluded. The underlying rationale is that, just like people called “dominance-oriented leaders” by social psychologists, countries value the prestige of leading a group, even a very small regional group.

Suggested Citation

  • Hamanaka, Shintaro, 2022. "The World of overlapping regions," IDE Discussion Papers 835, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).
    • Handle: RePEc:jet:dpaper:dpaper835
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ir.ide.go.jp/record/52962/files/IDP000835_001.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2022
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brigitte Weiffen & Leslie Wehner & Detlef Nolte, 2013. "Overlapping regional security institutions in South America: The case of OAS and UNASUR," International Area Studies Review, Center for International Area Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, vol. 16(4), pages 370-389, December.
    2. Yoichi Funabashi, 1995. "Asia Pacific Fusion: Japan's Role in APEC," Peterson Institute Press: All Books, Peterson Institute for International Economics, number 21, July.
    3. Baldwin, Richard, 1993. "A Domino Theory of Regionalism," CEPR Discussion Papers 857, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    4. Wendt, Alexander, 1994. "Collective Identity Formation and the International State," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 88(2), pages 384-396, June.
    5. Downs, George W. & Rocke, David M. & Barsoom, Peter N., 1998. "Managing the Evolution of Multilateralism," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 52(2), pages 397-419, April.
    6. Busch, Marc L., 2007. "Overlapping Institutions, Forum Shopping, and Dispute Settlement in International Trade," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 61(4), pages 735-761, October.
    7. Scott L. Baier & Jeffrey H. Bergstrand & Ronald Mariutto, 2014. "Economic Determinants of Free Trade Agreements Revisited: Distinguishing Sources of Interdependence," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(1), pages 31-58, February.
    8. Baldwin, Richard & Jaimovich, Dany, 2012. "Are Free Trade Agreements contagious?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(1), pages 1-16.
    9. Arel-Bundock, Vincent, 2017. "The Unintended Consequences of Bilateralism: Treaty Shopping and International Tax Policy," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 71(2), pages 349-371, April.
    10. Hoffmann, Stanley, 1963. "Discord in Community: The North Atlantic Area as a Partial International System," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 17(3), pages 521-549, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Hamanaka, Shintaro, 2018. "Why breakup?: looking into unsuccessful free trade agreement negotiations," IDE Discussion Papers 697, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).
    2. Andreas Dür & Leonardo Baccini & Manfred Elsig, 2014. "The design of international trade agreements: Introducing a new dataset," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 9(3), pages 353-375, September.
    3. Jee‐Hyeong Park & Jaeyoun Roh, 2025. "Snowballing alongside domino effects on the proliferation of preferential trade agreements," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 58(4), pages 1550-1582, November.
    4. Hamanaka, Shintaro, 2012. "Evolutionary paths toward a region-wide economic agreement in Asia," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 383-394.
    5. Hamanaka, Shintaro, 2018. "Theorizing regional group formation : anatomy of regional institutions from a membership perspective," IDE Discussion Papers 683, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).
    6. Innwon Park & Soonchan Park, 2017. "Formation of interdependent regional trade agreements and production networks," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(10), pages 2032-2055, October.
    7. Antoni Estevadeordal & Gaston Nievas, 2024. "Trade and diplomacy Economic determinants of international cooperation agreements and its effect on international trade in the post World War II era: 1945-2022," PSE Working Papers halshs-04721902, HAL.
    8. Cornelius Hirsch & Harald Oberhofer, 2017. "Bilateral Trade Agreements and Trade Distortions in Agricultural Markets," FIW Working Paper series 176, FIW.
    9. United Nations ESCAP (ed.), 2011. "Trade beyond Doha: Prospects for Asia-Pacific Least Developed Countries, Studies in Trade and Investment 76," STUDIES IN TRADE AND INVESTMENT, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), number tipub2625, January-j.
    10. NAGEL Daniel, 2017. "The Fate of 21st Century Multilateralism," European Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, Bucharest Economic Academy, issue 02, June.
    11. Cosimo Beverelli & Gianluca Orefice & Nadia Rocha, 2016. "The Impact of Offshoring and Migration Policies on Migration Flows," Working Papers 2016-21, CEPII research center.
    12. Thierry Mayer & Vincent Vicard & Soledad Zignago & Beata Javorcik, 2019. "The cost of non-Europe, revisited," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 34(98), pages 145-199.
    13. Stephen, Matthew D., 2020. "China's new multilateral institutions: A framework and research agenda," Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Global Governance SP IV 2020-102, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    14. Kangni Kpodar & Patrick Imam, 2016. "Does a Regional Trade Agreement Lessen or Worsen Growth Volatility? An Empirical Investigation," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(5), pages 949-979, November.
    15. Fontagné, Lionel & Santoni, Gianluca, 2021. "GVCs and the endogenous geography of RTAs," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    16. Jose Jaime Baena-Rojas & Susana Herrero-Olarte, 2020. "From Preferential Trade Arrangements to Free Trade Agreements: One of the Downturns of Cooperation in International Relations?," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-17, August.
    17. Simon Blöthner & Mario Larch, 2022. "Economic determinants of regional trade agreements revisited using machine learning," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 63(4), pages 1771-1807, October.
    18. Nikitas Konstantinidis, 2008. "Gradualism and uncertainty in international union formation: The European Community’s first enlargement," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 3(4), pages 399-433, December.
    19. Fan He & Panpan Yang, 2015. "China's Role in Asia's Free Trade Agreements," Asia and the Pacific Policy Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 2(2), pages 416-424, May.
    20. Bergstrand, Jeffrey H. & Egger, Peter, 2013. "What determines BITs?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(1), pages 107-122.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:jet:dpaper:dpaper835. 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: Michitaka Imamitsu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/idegvjp.html .

    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.