Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/109332 
Year of Publication: 
2008
Series/Report no.: 
ADB Economics Working Paper Series No. 127
Publisher: 
Asian Development Bank (ADB), Manila
Abstract: 
Overlapping free trade agreements (FTAs) have given rise to hub-and-spoke FTAs that may promote trade by giving an export advantage to the FTA hub country. We empirically investigate the effect of hub-and-spoke FTAs on trade using panel data consisting of 99 countries and covering the period 1960–1999. Our empirical analysis of the panel data yields three notable findings. First, FTAs have a significant and positive impact on trade. Second, hub-and-spoke FTAs increase trade above and beyond FTAs, and thus reinforce the trade-boosting effects of FTAs. Third, our results imply an annual growth rate of 4.9% in bilateral trade and hence a doubling of trade after 14½ years between FTA partners. Our results indicate that the hub-and-spoke nature of FTAs has a positive effect on trade, in addition to the direct, trade-liberalizing effect of FTAs. Therefore, in a world of overlapping FTAs, a more accurate empirical analysis of the relationship between FTAs and trade calls for taking into account the hub-and-spoke characteristic of FTAs.
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
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Document Type: 
Working Paper

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