IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/29169.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

THE Effects of Multilateral Trade Liberalization on the Extensive and the Intensive Margins of Trade

Author

Listed:
  • Christodoulopoulou, Styliani

Abstract

This paper examines empirically the effects of the WTO and RTA membership on the extensive and the intensive margins of trade. Using disaggregated data for a sample of 177 countries, the main findings of this paper are that WTO membership tends to increase the number of products traded between members (extensive margin), and tends to increase the average sales per product line (intensive margin). I further detect substantial heterogeneity when I examine these effects for various subsamples of the data (e.g. by the degree of product differentiation or the level of development of a country). This demonstrates that many of the aggregate effects estimated in the existing literature (e.g. Rose 2004) hide a substantial amount of variation in the WTO's effect on trade. Finally, accounting for multilateral resistance as in Anderson and van Wincoop (2003), I find that the WTO effect becomes insignificant, while the RTA membership boosts trade between members and between members and outsiders at least in the aggregate level.

Suggested Citation

  • Christodoulopoulou, Styliani, 2010. "THE Effects of Multilateral Trade Liberalization on the Extensive and the Intensive Margins of Trade," MPRA Paper 29169, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:29169
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/29169/1/MPRA_paper_29169.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chang, Pao-Li & Lee, Myoung-Jae, 2011. "The WTO trade effect," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(1), pages 53-71, September.
    2. Alberto Amurgo Pacheco, 2006. "Preferential Trade Liberalization and the Range of Exported Products: The Case of the Euro-Mediterranean FTA," IHEID Working Papers 18-2006, Economics Section, The Graduate Institute of International Studies.
    3. Gabriel Felbermayr & Wilhelm Kohler, 2010. "Does WTO Membership Make a Difference at the Extensive Margin of World Trade?," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Zdenek Drabek (ed.), Is the World Trade Organization Attractive Enough for Emerging Economies?, chapter 8, pages 217-246, Palgrave Macmillan.
    4. Marc J. Melitz & Giancarlo I. P. Ottaviano, 2021. "Market Size, Trade, and Productivity," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Firms and Workers in a Globalized World Larger Markets, Tougher Competition, chapter 4, pages 87-108, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    5. Richard E. Baldwin & Virginia Di Nino, 2006. "Euros and Zeros: The Common Currency Effect on Trade in New Goods," NBER Working Papers 12673, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Hillberry, Russell H. & McDaniel, Christine A., 2002. "A Decomposition of North American Trade Growth since NAFTA," Working Papers 15866, United States International Trade Commission, Office of Economics.
    7. Albornoz, Facundo & Calvo Pardo, Héctor F. & Corcos, Gregory & Ornelas, Emanuel, 2012. "Sequential exporting," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(1), pages 17-31.
    8. Christian Broda & David E. Weinstein, 2006. "Globalization and the Gains From Variety," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 121(2), pages 541-585.
    9. 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.
    10. Giovanni Peri & Francisco Requena, 2009. "The Trade Creation Effect of Immigrants: Testing the Theory on the Remarkable case of Spain," Development Working Papers 275, Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano, University of Milano.
    11. Rauch, James E., 1999. "Networks versus markets in international trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 7-35, June.
    12. By Michael Funke & Ralf Ruhwedel, 2001. "Product Variety and Economic Growth: Empirical Evidence for the OECD Countries," IMF Staff Papers, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 48(2), pages 1-1.
    13. Andrew B. Bernard & J. Bradford Jensen & Stephen J. Redding & Peter K. Schott, 2007. "Firms in International Trade," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 21(3), pages 105-130, Summer.
    14. Gabriel J Felbermayr & Wilhelm Kohler, 2014. "Exploring the Intensive and Extensive Margins of World Trade," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: European Economic Integration, WTO Membership, Immigration and Offshoring, chapter 4, pages 115-148, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    15. repec:bla:worlde:v:22:y:1999:i:4:p:477-512 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Arvind Panagariya, 1999. "The Regionalism Debate: An Overview," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(4), pages 455-476, June.
    17. Thomas Chaney, 2008. "Distorted Gravity: The Intensive and Extensive Margins of International Trade," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(4), pages 1707-1721, September.
    18. James E. Anderson & Eric van Wincoop, 2003. "Gravity with Gravitas: A Solution to the Border Puzzle," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(1), pages 170-192, March.
    19. 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.
    20. Bagwell, Kyle & Staiger, Robert W., 2001. "Reciprocity, non-discrimination and preferential agreements in the multilateral trading system," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 281-325, June.
    21. Timothy J. Kehoe & Kim J. Ruhl, 2013. "How Important Is the New Goods Margin in International Trade?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 121(2), pages 358-392.
    22. Debaere, Peter & Mostashari, Shalah, 2005. "Do Tariffs Matter for the Extensive Margin of International Trade? An Empirical Analysis," CEPR Discussion Papers 5260, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    23. John Romalis, 2007. "NAFTA's and CUSFTA's Impact on International Trade," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 89(3), pages 416-435, August.
    24. Alberto Amurgo-Pacheco, Martha Denisse Pierola, 2007. "Patterns of export diversification in developing countries: intensive and extensive margins," IHEID Working Papers 20-2007, Economics Section, The Graduate Institute of International Studies, revised Jul 2007.
    25. Xuepeng Liu, 2009. "GATT/WTO Promotes Trade Strongly: Sample Selection and Model Specification," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(3), pages 428-446, August.
    26. Mary Amiti & Caroline Freund, 2010. "The Anatomy of China's Export Growth," NBER Chapters, in: China's Growing Role in World Trade, pages 35-56, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    27. Martinez-Zarzoso Inma & Márquez-Ramos Laura, 2008. "The Effect of Trade Facilitation on Sectoral Trade," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 8(1), pages 1-46, September.
    28. J. M. C. Santos Silva & Silvana Tenreyro, 2006. "The Log of Gravity," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 88(4), pages 641-658, November.
    29. Robert W. Staiger & Kyle Bagwell, 1999. "An Economic Theory of GATT," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(1), pages 215-248, March.
    30. Richard Frensch, 2010. "Trade Liberalization and Import Margins," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(3), pages 4-22, May.
    31. David Hummels & Peter J. Klenow, 2002. "The Variety and Quality of a Nation's Trade," NBER Working Papers 8712, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    32. Vicarelli, Claudio & De Santis, Roberta & De Nardis, Sergio, 2008. "The Single Currency's Effects on Eurozone Sectoral Trade: Winners and Losers?," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 2, pages 1-34.
    33. Bernhard Herz & Marco Wagner, 2007. "Do the World Trade Organization and the Generalized System of Preferences foster bilateral trade?," Working Papers 020, Bavarian Graduate Program in Economics (BGPE).
    34. Krugman, Paul, 1980. "Scale Economies, Product Differentiation, and the Pattern of Trade," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 70(5), pages 950-959, December.
    35. Antoine Berthou & Lionel Fontagné, 2008. "The Euro and the Intensive and Extensive Margins of Trade: Evidence from French Firm Level Data," Working Papers 2008-06, CEPII research center.
    36. Tibor Besedes & Thomas J. Prusa, 2004. "Surviving the U.S. Import Market: The Role of Product Differentiation," NBER Working Papers 10319, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    37. Elisa Gamberoni, 2007. "Do unilateral trade preferences help export diversification? An investigation of the impact of European unilateral trade preferences on the extensive and intensive margin of trade," IHEID Working Papers 17-2007, Economics Section, The Graduate Institute of International Studies.
    38. Romer, Paul, 1994. "New goods, old theory, and the welfare costs of trade restrictions," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 5-38, February.
    39. Flam, Harry & Nordström, Håkan, 2006. "Euro Effects on the Intensive and Extensive Margins of Trade," Seminar Papers 750, Stockholm University, Institute for International Economic Studies.
    40. repec:lmu:muenar:20646 is not listed on IDEAS
    41. Mr. Helge Berger & Volker Nitsch, 2010. "The Euro’s Effecton Trade Imbalances," IMF Working Papers 2010/226, International Monetary Fund.
    42. Miriam Manchin, 2006. "Preference Utilisation and Tariff Reduction in EU Imports from ACP Countries," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(9), pages 1243-1266, September.
    43. Andersson, Martin, 2007. "Entry costs and adjustments on the extensive margin - an analysis of how familiarity breeds exports," Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 81, Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies.
    44. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/6apm7lruv088iagm4rv2c33jtg is not listed on IDEAS
    45. Persson, Maria, 2008. "Trade Facilitation and the Extensive and Intensive Margins of Trade," Working Papers 2008:13, Lund University, Department of Economics.
    46. R. W. Staiger & G. Tabellini, 1999. "Do Gatt Rules Help Governments Make Domestic Commitments?," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(2), pages 109-144, July.
    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. Gao, Yue & Whalley, John & Ren, Yonglei, 2014. "Decomposing China's export growth into extensive margin, export quality and quantity effects," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 19-26.
    2. Türkcan, Kemal & Pişkin, Erhan, 2014. "Ticaret Anlaşmalarının Türkiye’nin İhracat Dinamiğine Etkisi: Yaygın ve Yoğun Ticaret [The Effects of the Trade Agreements on the Dynamics of Turkey’s Export: Extensive and Intensive Margins]," MPRA Paper 59841, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Dick Nuwamanya Kamuganga, 2012. "The Linkage between Outcome Differences in Cotton Production and Rural Roads Improvements - A Matching Approach," IHEID Working Papers 15-2012, Economics Section, The Graduate Institute of International Studies.

    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. Persson, Maria, 2008. "Trade Facilitation and the Extensive and Intensive Margins of Trade," Working Papers 2008:13, Lund University, Department of Economics.
    2. Maria Persson, 2013. "Trade facilitation and the extensive margin," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(5), pages 658-693, August.
    3. 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.
    4. Grant, Jason H. & Boys, Kathryn A., 2015. "The GATT/WTO Trade Effect 20 Years Later: A Critical Review and New Insights," 2015 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 26-28, San Francisco, California 205896, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    5. Johannes Van Biesebroeck & Yingting Yi & Elena Zaurino, 2022. "Trade liberalisation and the extensive margin of differentiated goods: Evidence from China," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(9), pages 2724-2747, September.
    6. Türkcan, Kemal & Pişkin, Erhan, 2014. "Ticaret Anlaşmalarının Türkiye’nin İhracat Dinamiğine Etkisi: Yaygın ve Yoğun Ticaret [The Effects of the Trade Agreements on the Dynamics of Turkey’s Export: Extensive and Intensive Margins]," MPRA Paper 59841, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. (ed.), 0. "Research Handbook on Economic Diplomacy," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 16053.
    8. Head, Keith & Mayer, Thierry, 2014. "Gravity Equations: Workhorse,Toolkit, and Cookbook," Handbook of International Economics, in: Gopinath, G. & Helpman, . & Rogoff, K. (ed.), Handbook of International Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 0, pages 131-195, Elsevier.
    9. Emanuel Ornelas, 2016. "Special and Differential Treatment for Developing Countries," CESifo Working Paper Series 5823, CESifo.
    10. Raphael Auer, 2009. "Product Heterogeneity, Within-Industry Trade Patterns, and the Home Bias of Consumption?," Working Papers 09.05, Swiss National Bank, Study Center Gerzensee.
    11. Chang, Pao-Li & Lee, Myoung-Jae, 2011. "The WTO trade effect," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(1), pages 53-71, September.
    12. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/dambferfb7dfprc9m01g1j1k2 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/dambferfb7dfprc9m01g1j1k2 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Mitik, Lulit & Decaluwé, Bernard, 2008. "The impact of trade on female labor and girls’ education in South Africa: a CGE analysis," Conference papers 331785, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    15. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/dambferfb7dfprc9m01g1j1k2 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Dutt, Pushan, 2020. "The WTO is not passé," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    17. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/dambferfb7dfprc9m01g1j1k2 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Hillberry, Russell & Hummels, David, 2013. "Trade Elasticity Parameters for a Computable General Equilibrium Model," Handbook of Computable General Equilibrium Modeling, in: Peter B. Dixon & Dale Jorgenson (ed.), Handbook of Computable General Equilibrium Modeling, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 0, pages 1213-1269, Elsevier.
    19. Machado, José A.F. & Santos Silva, J.M.C. & Wei, Kehai, 2016. "Quantiles, corners, and the extensive margin of trade," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 73-84.
    20. Maggi, Giovanni, 2014. "International Trade Agreements," Handbook of International Economics, in: Gopinath, G. & Helpman, . & Rogoff, K. (ed.), Handbook of International Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 0, pages 317-390, Elsevier.
    21. Richard Frensch, 2008. "Trade liberalisation, adoption costs, and import margins in CEEC and OECD trade," Working Papers 269, Leibniz Institut für Ost- und Südosteuropaforschung (Institute for East and Southeast European Studies).
    22. 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.
    23. 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.
    24. Raphael A. Auer, 2013. "Product Heterogeneity, Cross-Country Taste Differences, and the Consumption Home Bias," Working Papers 13.01, Swiss National Bank, Study Center Gerzensee.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    WTO; Regional Trade Agreements; Extensive margin; Intensive Margin; Poisson Regression;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F15 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Economic Integration
    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:pra:mprapa:29169. 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: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.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.