As reported by the World Trade Organization, by 1995 the number of regional trade agreements that had been notified exceeded 100. Fifteen years later, the number exceeds 150. For more than half a century, since the early ideas by Viner (1950), the typical concern regarding these preferential initiatives has been to estimate their effects on trade, since it is expected that they increase trade between partners (trade creation) or crowds out imports from the rest of the world (trade diversion). Ultimately, the key question to answer is whether the formation of regional trading blocs raises or lowers welfare, both of the members and of the world as a whole.

The early initiatives to form regional trade agreements, referred to as the “old regionalism”, date back to the 1950s and 1960s, whereas those that constitute the “new regionalism” began in the late 1980s, and still continue. The latter were almost coincidental with the emergence of the “new economic geography”. The links between the “new regionalism” and the “new economic geography” are obvious, since one of the most prominent characteristics of both the “old” and “new” regionalism is that the participants are neighbors.

Those regions of the world where regional trade agreements have been more successful are Europe and North America, which together account for two thirds of world trade, making the importance of regional economic integration self-evident. This implies that most of the countries which have been more seriously affected by the recent economic and financial crisis are members of the most successful regional trade agreements.

The aims of the workshop are to contribute to these relevant fields of economic research after discussing several state-of-the-art papers on these and related topics. They will be debated by different people from academia, research institutes, and other internationally recognized organizations. Their points of view will provide the diverse audience with both theoretical and practical knowledge of some relevant subjects for the understanding of regional economic integration and how it might have impacted on several economic issues.

16:00 – 17:30
“Trade, Conflicts, and Political Integration: Explaining the Heterogeneity of Regional Trade Agreements”
Vincent Vicard, Banque de France

“Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations in the European Union – Integration versus Centralization”
Gregor Van Der Beek, University of Koblenz

9:30 – 11:30
“Testing the trade diversion hypothesis: The case of the European Union”
Abel Fernández, Ivie
Co-authors: Iván Arribas and Emili Tortosa-Ausina

"Distance and the endogenous margins of FDI"
Farid Toubal, Paris School of Economics and CEPII
Co-author: Joern Kleinert

"Agglomeration premium and trading firms"
Gábor Békés, Institute of Economics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences

12:00 – 13:30
“The changing localization of economic activity in Europe: Stylized facts”
Christiane Krieger-Boden, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW)

"Productive cities: sorting, selection and organization"
Frédéric Robert-Nicoud, Université de Genève
Co-authors: Kristian Behrens and Gilles Duranton

Emili Tortosa-Ausina, Universitat Jaume I and Ivie
Iván Arribas, Universitat de València and Ivie

Gábor Békés, Institute of Economics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences
Peter Egger, ETH Zürich
Abel Fernández, Ivie
Christiane Krieger-Boden, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW)
Inmaculada Martínez-Zarzoso, Georg-August-Universität Göettingen and Universitat Jaume I
Frédéric Robert-Nicoud, Université de Genève
Farid Toubal, Paris School of Economics and CEPII
Gregor Van Der Beek, University of Koblenz
Vincent Vicard, Banque de France

Ivie
Guardia Civil, 22 esc. 2ª, 1º - 46020 Valencia
Access: Daniel Balaciart, 3 bajo
Valencia, 15-16 July 2010