Publication: Deep Trade Agreements and FDI in Partial and General Equilibrium: A Structural Estimation Framework
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2023-03
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2023-03-08
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This paper quantifies the relationships between deep trade liberalization and foreign direct investment. To this end, it focuses on the effects of deep trade agreements. The analysis relies on a structural framework that simultaneously enables (i) estimating the direct impact of deep trade agreements on foreign direct investment, (ii) translating the partial deep trade agreement estimates into general equilibrium effects on foreign direct investment; and (iii) obtaining partial deep trade agreement effects on trade and quantifying the impact of deep trade agreements on foreign direct investment through trade. The paper obtains sizeable, positive, and statistically significant estimates of the effects of deep trade agreements on both trade and foreign direct investment. A counterfactual analysis suggests that together with direct and indirect channels deep trade agreements have contributed.
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“Larch, Mario; Yotov, Yoto V.. 2023. Deep Trade Agreements and FDI in Partial and General Equilibrium: A Structural Estimation Framework. Policy Research Working Papers; 10338. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/39494 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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Publication Deep Trade Agreements and FDI in Partial and General Equilibrium(Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the World Bank, 2025-05-25)This paper quantifies the relationships between deep trade agreements and foreign direct investment (FDI). The analysis relies on a structural framework that simultaneously enables (a) estimating the direct impact of deep trade agreements on FDI, (b) translating the partial deep trade agreement estimates into general equilibrium effects on FDI, and (c) obtaining partial deep trade agreement effects on trade and quantifying the impact of deep trade agreements on FDI through trade. The effects of deep trade agreements on both trade and FDI are sizeable, positive, and statistically significant. A counterfactual analysis suggests that together with direct and indirect channels deep trade agreements have contributed to a large but asymmetric increase in inward versus outward FDI.Publication A Simple Method to Quantify the ex-ante Effects of 'Deep' Trade Liberalization and 'Hard' Trade Protection(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-10)This paper proposes a simple and flexible econometric approach to quantify ex-ante the “deep” impact of trade liberalization and the “hard” effects of protection with the empirical structural gravity model. Specifically, the paper argues that the difference between the estimates of border indicator variables for affected and non-affected countries can be used as a comprehensive measure of the change in bilateral trade costs in response to a hypothetical policy change. To demonstrate the effectiveness of these methods, the paper focus on the integration between the countries from the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA) and the European Union (EU), which is an important policy application that has not been studied before due to lack of data. This analysis overcomes this challenge by utilizing a new dataset on trade and production that covers all EU countries and all CEFTA members (except for Kosovo). The partial equilibrium estimates that we obtain confirm the validity of our methods, while the corresponding general equilibrium effects point to significant and heterogeneous potential gains for the CEFTA countries from joining the EU. The proposed methods can also be extended to ex-post analysis and are readily applicable to other applications, for example, “hard” Brexit.Publication A General Equilibrium Assessment of the Economic Impact of Deep Trade Agreements(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-04)This paper explores the economic impacts of preferential trade agreements, focusing on the provisions they contain, beyond phasing out tariffs. Clustering 278 preferential trade agreements based on 906 provisions grouped into 18 policy areas, three clusters are obtained for which a trade elasticity to preferential trade agreement is estimated using structural gravity. A series of full general equilibrium counterfactual situations for endowment economies is simulated, revealing the economic impacts of deepening existing trade agreements and signing new ones—that is, the intensive and extensive margins of preferential trade agreements. The paper illustrates the method with a general deepening of existing preferential trade agreements worldwide. Focusing on the examples of the Latin America and the Caribbean and East Asia and Pacific regions, the paper shows that deepening preferential trade agreements leads to higher trade and welfare effects than signing new ones.Publication The Evolution of Deep Trade Agreements(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-06)This paper presents new data on the content of preferential trade agreements. The data contain detailed information on the 18 policy areas most frequently covered in preferential trade agreements, focusing on the stated objectives, substantive commitments, and other aspects such as transparency, procedures, and enforcement. 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First, is the impact of trade agreements on foreign direct investment heterogeneous across types of business activity Second, is this impact heterogeneous across disciplines covered in the agreements Third, does the level of development of home and host countries matter for this impact The analysis exploits the World Bank’s data set on the content of preferential trade agreement and data on announcements of bilateral greenfield investment at the activity level. The findings show that deep trade agreements matter for investment: every additional discipline in a preferential trade agreement increases foreign direct investment by 1.4 percent, on average. Deep agreements do not impact foreign direct investment in natural resources and extractive activities and have heterogeneous effects across manufacturing- and services-related activities. The results also reveal that disciplines that go beyond the mandate the World Trade Organization matter more for foreign direct investment. Disciplines related to investment liberalization and protection, intellectual property rights, or migration increase foreign direct investment, whereas disciplines on labor market regulations reduce investment. The results are mostly driven by investment between developed and developing countries.
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