IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/imf/imfwpa/2015-177.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Does A Regional Trade Agreement Lessen or Exacerbate Growth Volatility? An Empirical Investigation

Author

Listed:
  • Mr. Kangni R Kpodar
  • Patrick A. Imam

Abstract

This paper assesses how regional trade agreements (RTAs) impact growth volatility on a worldwide sample of 170 countries with data spanning the period 1978-2012. Notwithstanding concerns that trade openness through RTAs can heighten exposure to shocks, in particular when it leads to increased product specialization, RTAs through enhanced policy credibility, improved policy coordination, and reduced risk of conflicts can ease growth volatility. Empirical estimations suggest the benefits outweigh the costs as RTAs are consistently associated with lower growth volatility, after controlling for trade openness and other determinants of growth volatility. Furthermore, regression results also suggest that countries that are more prone to shocks are more likely to join a RTA, in particular with countries with relatively less volatile growth, additionally enhancing the stabilization effect.

Suggested Citation

  • Mr. Kangni R Kpodar & Patrick A. Imam, 2015. "Does A Regional Trade Agreement Lessen or Exacerbate Growth Volatility? An Empirical Investigation," IMF Working Papers 2015/177, International Monetary Fund.
  • Handle: RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2015/177
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.aspx?sk=43134
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. de Sousa, José, 2012. "The currency union effect on trade is decreasing over time," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 117(3), pages 917-920.
    2. Kose, M. Ayhan & Prasad, Eswar S. & Terrones, Marco E., 2006. "How do trade and financial integration affect the relationship between growth and volatility?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 176-202, June.
    3. Easterly, William & Kraay, Aart, 2000. "Small States, Small Problems? Income, Growth, and Volatility in Small States," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 28(11), pages 2013-2027, November.
    4. Eduardo A. Cavallo, 2008. "Output Volatility and Openness to Trade: a Reassessment," Economía Journal, The Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association - LACEA, vol. 0(Fall 2008), pages 105-152, September.
    5. Frankel, Jeffrey A & Stein, Ernesto & Wei, Shang-Jin, 1996. "Regional Trading Arrangements: Natural or Supernatural," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(2), pages 52-56, May.
    6. Sylviane Guillaumont Jeanneney & Kangni Kpodar, 2011. "Financial Development and Poverty Reduction: Can There be a Benefit without a Cost?," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(1), pages 143-163.
    7. Acemoglu, Daron & Johnson, Simon & Robinson, James & Thaicharoen, Yunyong, 2003. "Institutional causes, macroeconomic symptoms: volatility, crises and growth," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 49-123, January.
    8. L Alan Winters, 2004. "Trade Liberalisation and Economic Performance: An Overview," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 114(493), pages 4-21, February.
    9. Frankel, Jeffrey & Stein, Ernesto & Wei, Shang-jin, 1995. "Trading blocs and the Americas: The natural, the unnatural, and the super-natural," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 61-95, June.
    10. Krugman, Paul, 1991. "Increasing Returns and Economic Geography," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(3), pages 483-499, June.
    11. Jeffrey A. Frankel & Ernesto Stein & Shang-Jin Wei, 1998. "Continental Trading Blocs: Are They Natural or Supernatural?," NBER Chapters, in: The Regionalization of the World Economy, pages 91-120, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Frankel, Jeffrey A. & Stein, Ernesto & Wei, Shang-Jin, 1996. "Regional Trading Arrangements," Center for International and Development Economics Research, Working Paper Series qt5hf1z4rv, Center for International and Development Economics Research, Institute for Business and Economic Research, UC Berkeley.
    13. Julian di Giovanni & Andrei A. Levchenko, 2009. "Trade Openness and Volatility," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 91(3), pages 558-585, August.
    14. Jeffrey A. Frankel, 1998. "The Regionalization of the World Economy," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number fran98-1.
    15. Sylviane Guillaumont Jeanneney & Kangni Kpodar, 2011. "Financial Development and Poverty Reduction: Can There Be a Benefit Without a Cost?," Post-Print halshs-00601306, HAL.
    16. Marianne Baxter & Robert G. King, 1999. "Measuring Business Cycles: Approximate Band-Pass Filters For Economic Time Series," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 81(4), pages 575-593, November.
    17. Raddatz, Claudio, 2007. "Are external shocks responsible for the instability of output in low-income countries?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(1), pages 155-187, September.
    18. Francisco Rodríguez & Dani Rodrik, 2001. "Trade Policy and Economic Growth: A Skeptic's Guide to the Cross-National Evidence," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2000, Volume 15, pages 261-338, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Baier, Scott L. & Bergstrand, Jeffrey H., 2004. "Economic determinants of free trade agreements," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(1), pages 29-63, October.
    20. Frederick van der Ploeg & Steven Poelhekke, 2009. "Volatility and the natural resource curse," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 61(4), pages 727-760, October.
    21. Athanasios Vamvakidis, 1999. "Regional Trade Agreements or Broad Liberalization: Which Path Leads to Faster Growth?," IMF Staff Papers, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 46(1), pages 1-3.
    22. Mona Haddad & Jamus Jerome Lim & Cosimo Pancaro & Christian Saborowski, 2013. "Trade openness reduces growth volatility when countries are well diversified," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 46(2), pages 765-790, May.
    23. de Melo, Jaime & Montenegro, Claudio & Panagariya, Arvind, 1992. "Regional integration, old and new," Policy Research Working Paper Series 985, The World Bank.
    24. Mr. Paolo Mauro & Mr. Torbjorn I. Becker, 2006. "Output Drops and the Shocks That Matter," IMF Working Papers 2006/172, International Monetary Fund.
    25. Krenz, Astrid & Rübel, Gerhard, 2010. "Industrial localization and countries' specialization in the European Union: An empirical investigation," University of Göttingen Working Papers in Economics 106, University of Goettingen, Department of Economics.
    26. Cavallo, Eduardo A. & Frankel, Jeffrey A., 2008. "Does openness to trade make countries more vulnerable to sudden stops, or less? Using gravity to establish causality," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 27(8), pages 1430-1452, December.
    27. Arellano, Manuel & Bover, Olympia, 1995. "Another look at the instrumental variable estimation of error-components models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 29-51, July.
    28. EDWARDS, Jeffrey A., 2010. "GDP Growth Volatility and Regional Free Trade Agreements," Applied Econometrics and International Development, Euro-American Association of Economic Development, vol. 10(2), pages 73-86.
    29. Acemoglu, Daron & Zilibotti, Fabrizio, 1997. "Was Prometheus Unbound by Chance? Risk, Diversification, and Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 105(4), pages 709-751, August.
    30. Blundell, Richard & Bond, Stephen, 1998. "Initial conditions and moment restrictions in dynamic panel data models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 115-143, August.
    31. Fernandez, Raquel & Portes, Jonathan, 1998. "Returns to Regionalism: An Analysis of Nontraditional Gains from Regional Trade Agreements," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 12(2), pages 197-220, May.
    32. Cadot, Olivier & Olarreaga, Marcelo & Tschopp, Jeanne, 2009. "Do Trade Agreements Reduce the Volatility of Agricultural Distortions?," Agricultural Distortions Working Paper Series 50303, World Bank.
    33. Sylviane Guillaumont Jeanneney & Kangni Kpodar, 2011. "Financial Development and Poverty Reduction: Can There be a Benefit without a Cost?," Post-Print halshs-00554229, HAL.
    34. John Whalley, 1998. "Why Do Countries Seek Regional Trade Agreements?," NBER Chapters, in: The Regionalization of the World Economy, pages 63-90, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    35. Manuel Arellano & Stephen Bond, 1991. "Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 58(2), pages 277-297.
    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. 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.
    2. Imam, Patrick & Kpodar, Kangni, 2016. "Islamic banking: Good for growth?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 387-401.
    3. Montalbano, Pierluigi, 2011. "Trade Openness and Developing Countries' Vulnerability: Concepts, Misconceptions, and Directions for Research," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(9), pages 1489-1502, September.
    4. Mona Haddad & Jamus Jerome Lim & Cosimo Pancaro & Christian Saborowski, 2013. "Trade openness reduces growth volatility when countries are well diversified," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 46(2), pages 765-790, May.
    5. Jean-François Brun & Sèna Kimm Gnangnon, 2019. "Tax reform, public revenue and public revenue instability in developing countries: Does development aid matter?," Working Papers halshs-02089734, HAL.
    6. Jean-François Brun & Sèna Kimm Gnangnon, 2019. "Tax reform, public revenue and public revenue instability in developing countries: Does development aid matter?," CERDI Working papers halshs-02089734, HAL.
    7. Baris Kablamaci, 2019. "Does economic openness affect liberal and electoral democracy in a different way? Empirical evidence from developing countries," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 66(3), pages 404-433, July.
    8. Laura Márquez-Ramos & Inmaculada Martínez-Zarzoso & Celestino Suárez-Burguet, 2011. "Determinants of Deep Integration: Examining Socio-political Factors," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 479-500, July.
    9. de Moraes, Claudio Oliveira & Cruz, Guilherme, 2023. "What do we know about the relationship between banks and income inequality? Empirical evidence for emerging and low-income countries," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    10. Celestino Suárez-Burgnet & Inmaculada Martínez-Zarzoso & Laura Márquez-Ramos, "undated". "Determinants of regional integration agreements in a discrete choice framework: Re-Examining the evidence," Working Papers on International Economics and Finance 05-10, FEDEA.
    11. Ma, Yong & Lv, Lin, 2023. "Financial development, financial instability, and fiscal policy volatility: International evidence," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    12. Sam Hak Kan Tang, 2018. "Does Scientific And Technical Research Reduce Macroeconomic Volatility?," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 70(1), pages 68-88, January.
    13. Balavac, Merima & Pugh, Geoff, 2016. "The link between trade openness, export diversification, institutions and output volatility in transition countries," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 273-287.
    14. Sèna Kimm Gnangnon, 2023. "Do unilateral trade preferences help reduce poverty in beneficiary countries?," International Journal of Economic Policy Studies, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 249-288, February.
    15. Kim, Dong-Hyeon & Lin, Shu-Chin & Suen, Yu-Bo, 2016. "Trade, growth and growth volatility: New panel evidence," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 384-399.
    16. Solomos, Dionysios & Papageorgiou, Theofanis & Koumparoulis, Dimitrios, 2012. "Financial Sector and Business Cycles Determinants in the EMU context: An Empirical Approach (1996-2011)," MPRA Paper 43858, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Gnangnon, Sèna Kimm, 2022. "Internet, Participation in International Trade, and Tax Revenue Instability," Journal of Economic Integration, Center for Economic Integration, Sejong University, vol. 37(2), pages 267-315.
    18. Abel Mawuko Agoba & Joshua Yindenaba Abor & Kofi Achampong Osei & Jarjisu Sa-Aadu, 2020. "The Independence of Central Banks, Political Institutional Quality and Financial Sector Development in Africa," Journal of Emerging Market Finance, Institute for Financial Management and Research, vol. 19(2), pages 154-188, August.
    19. Chen, Maggie X., 2009. "Regional economic integration and geographic concentration of multinational firms," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(3), pages 355-375, April.
    20. EGBETUNDE, Tajudeen & ALLEY, Ibrahim, 2016. "Trade Openness And Economic Growth In Sub-Saharan Africa: A Dynamic Panel Data Analysis," Ilorin Journal of Business and Social Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ilorin, vol. 18(1), pages 153-169, October.

    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:imf:imfwpa:2015/177. 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: Akshay Modi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/imfffus.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.