ABSTRACT
In this chapter we investigate empirically extra-regional trade and intra-regional trade for the world’s three major trade regions, namely, the Asian Pacific Rim economies (APRE), the European Union (EU), and the North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA) for the period of 1980-1995. For extra-regional trade, we calculate and compare the Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) indices for these three regions and study how they changed over time. For intra-regional trade, we study the ratio of intra-regional exports to regional GDP and the ratio of intra-regional exports to total exports. We compare the ratios for the three regions and examine how well the intra-regional trade can be accounted by a proportional-spending model and a gravity model.
