Regional economic arrangements such as free trade areas (FTAs), customs unions, and currency blocs, have become increasingly prevalent in the world economy. Both pervasive and controversial, regionalization has some economists optimistic about the opportunities it creates and others fearful that it may corrupt fragile efforts to encourage global free trade. Including both empirical and theoretical studies, this volume addresses several important questions: Why do countries adopt FTAs and other regional trading arrangements? To what extent have existing regional arrangements actually affected patterns of trade? What are the welfare effects of such arrangements? Several chapters explore the economic effects of regional arrangements on patterns of trade, either on price differentials or via the gravity model on bilateral trade flows. In addition, this book examines the theoretical foundation of the gravity model. Making extensive use of the gravity model of bilateral trade, several chapters explore the economic effects of regional arrangements. In addition, this book examines the theoretical foundation of the gravity model.

Covers trends from 1957 to 1995.

This collection explores the importance of regionalization and globalization to the world economy, particularly questioning whether the world economy is characterized by increasing regionalization, rather than globalization. International contributors explore the processes in the Pacific area, the Americas, Africa and Europe and make an important contribution to current debates in development economics.

This paper analyzes the evolution of the degree of global cyclical interdependence over the period 1960-2005. We categorize the 106 countries in our sample into three groups-industrial countries, emerging markets, and other developing economies. Using a dynamic factor model, we then decompose macroeconomic fluctuations in key macroeconomic aggregates-output, consumption, and investment-into different factors. These are: (i) a global factor, which picks up fluctuations that are common across all variables and countries; (ii) three group-specific factors, which capture fluctuations that are common to all variables and all countries within each group of countries; (iii) country factors, which are common across all aggregates in a given country; and (iv) idiosyncratic factors specific to each time series. Our main result is that, during the period of globalization (1985-2005), there has been some convergence of business cycle fluctuations among the group of industrial economies and among the group of emerging market economies. Surprisingly, there has been a concomitant decline in the relative importance of the global factor. In other words, there is evidence of business cycle convergence within each of these two groups of countries but divergence (or decoupling) between them.

The Handbook of Global Science, Technology, and Innovation This unique Handbook provides an overview of the globalization of science, technology, and innovation, including global trends in the way knowledge is produced and distributed, the development of institutions, and global policy. It shows how technological change and innovation are shaped by the role of emerging countries in the generation of science and technological knowledge, and transnational corporations, and how reforms in intellectual property rights and world trade have been affected by the increasingly international flows of knowledge, technology, and innovation. The book provides an in-depth assessment of the themes and direction of science, technology, innovation, and public policy in an increasingly globalized world. With contributions from an international team of leading scholars, this cutting-edge reference work introduces readers to current debates about the role of science and technology in global society and the policy responses that shape its development. Comprising 28 specially commissioned chapters, the Handbook addresses major trends in global policy, including a significant shift toward private scientific research, the change in the distribution of science and technical knowledge, and a heightened awareness among policymakers of the economic and technological impact of scientific activity. Accessibly written, it provides an invaluable one-stop reference for students, social researchers, scientists, and policymakers alike.

This book explores the relationship between regionalization and global governance, surveying the theoretical debates, economic dimensions, security considerations and governing structures.

The book provides new insight into the role of organised business interests. It supports the concept of political economy and demonstrates how it transcends the limitations of CPE or IPE, to form a coherent whole. The book maps the conflict, convergence and influence of organized business interests in the context of regional integration.

Regions. How they emerge and how they are dramatically changing the appearance of the present 'world of states' and its related forms of governance from local to global levels is analysed in this monograph. But what are regions? Regions can be small or huge. They can be part of a single state, be composed out of different states or stretched out across borders. They can be important recognized economic, social or cultural entities or they can be largely ignored by the people who live on a region's territory. They can be well-defined with clear cut boundaries as is the case in so-called 'constitutional regions' or they can be fuzzy as for instance in cross-border regions. In sum, they are not a natural kind and defining regions is not a simple task. Luk Van Langenhove advances the concept of region building as an alternative to the construction of regions with three issues of region building being explored: - Why are regions built in a world of states? - How do region building processes take place? - How are regions transforming the present world order? Crossing disciplinary boundaries, this book is an exercise in theorizing regions and brings together under one conceptual framework, different processes and concepts such as regional integration, devolution, federalism, and separatism and refines the social constructionist view on regions

The book critically analyzes the ongoing changes in the regional, intra-regional, and global dynamics of cooperation, from a multi-disciplinary and pluralist perspective. It is based on the insight that in a post-hegemonic world the formation of regions and the process of globalization can be largely disconnected from the orbit of the US, and that a plurality of power and worldviews has replaced US hegemony. In spite of these changes, most existing analyses of current changes in the world order still rely upon Western-centered approaches, and Westphalian thinking. Against this backdrop, the book proposes to advance a truly global IR understanding of the post-hegemonic world, and weaves together the pluralist and multi-disciplinary perspectives of scholars located all around the world.