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Has CEFTA Increased Members’ Mutual Trade? Evidence with an Enlarged Set of Plausibly Exogenous Instruments

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  • Marjan Petreski

    (University American College Skopje, Macedonia)

Abstract

The objective of the paper is to measure the effect of the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA) in its today’s composition on members’ mutual trade. Special consideration is given to CEFTA endogeneity stemming from members’ will to form a trade bloc as a vehicle to approximate EU sooner and prevent further misunderstandings in the Balkan. We use a Conditional Mixed Process estimator whereby CEFTA is instrumented by a set of variables measuring democracy and governments’ negotiation will. The recent Conley et al. (2012) method is used to deal with only plausibly exogenous instruments. The 1996-2015 period is covered. Results suggest that CEFTA played quantitatively large and statistically significant role for its members. When endogeneity is considered, the effect of CEFTA on its members’ mutual trade is found even higher by 50% to 61%. This may indirectly suggest that CEFTA trading power has been drawn not only from countries’ GDPs and proximity, but also from their governments’ will to establish level playing field for cooperation and approach the EU quicker. However, if instruments’ strict exogeneity cannot be secured by the means of argument or statistical tools, then results suggest that CEFTA effect’s amplification may be rather driven, at least partially, by the correlation between the instrument and trade shocks.

Suggested Citation

  • Marjan Petreski, 2018. "Has CEFTA Increased Members’ Mutual Trade? Evidence with an Enlarged Set of Plausibly Exogenous Instruments," Czech Journal of Economics and Finance (Finance a uver), Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, vol. 68(3), pages 294-317, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:fau:fauart:v:68:y:2018:i:3:p:294-317
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Victoria Pistikou, 2020. "The Impact of CEFTA on Exports, Economic Growth and Development," International Journal of Business and Economic Sciences Applied Research (IJBESAR), International Hellenic University (IHU), Kavala Campus, Greece (formerly Eastern Macedonia and Thrace Institute of Technology - EMaTTech), vol. 13(3), pages 15-31, December.
    3. Nina Vujanović, 2023. "CEFTA: Trade and Growth Patterns Fifteen Years since Establishment," wiiw Research Reports 466, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw.
    4. Krasniqi, Besnik & Ahmetbasić, Jasmina & Bartlett, Will, 2022. "Foreign direct investment and backward spillovers in the Western Balkans: the context, opportunities and barriers to the development of regional supply chains," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 115391, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    CEFTA; FTA endogeneity; plausibly exogenous instrument;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F10 - International Economics - - Trade - - - General
    • J51 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Trade Unions: Objectives, Structure, and Effects
    • P33 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions - - - International Trade, Finance, Investment, Relations, and Aid

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