International Economics Data and Programs
If you have found these pages useful, or have any requests, please e-mail me.
José de Sousa
● What is the most current version of the RTA do files?
● How do I create a bilateral regional trade agreement dummy?
● Where do I find information on regional trade agreements?
● Why do I use the term "country"?
● What is the ISO3 alphanumeric code of countries?
● How do I define a regional trade agreement?
● How many bilateral relationships share a regional trade agreement per year in the sample?
●
What
is the most current version of the RTA do files
4th October 2014.
● How
do I create a bilateral regional trade agreement dummy?
Copy all the files into the same folder. Then, run
masterrta_2014oct.do.
● What are the main changes?
1/ Extended period of time: The data on RTAs starts with EU6 in
1958 and ends in the 4th of October 2014.
2/ I cover 199 countries compared to the 96 countries in Baier and
Bergstrand (2007).
3/ I use the most recent ISO3 codes (Thanks to Farid Toubal for this
suggestion)
4/ I distinguish between FTA=Free Trade Agreement; CU=Customs Union;
EIA=Economic Integration Agreement; PSA=Partial Scope Agreement (see
WTO for a definition of this information)
However, I do not include PSA (e.g. Chile - India; Mercosur-India;
Thailand - Lao), the only exception is ASEAN - China which is also a
EIA.
● Where
do we find information on regional trade agreements?
Three main sources are used to construct the "2.rta_2014oct" do file:
1/ Table 3 of Baier and Bergstrand (2007), "Do free trade agreements
actually increase
members' international trade?" Journal of International Economics 71
(1), 72–95 March. [hereafter BB07];
2/ The most recent WTO List of all
RTAs in force:
• As for 30th August and 4th October 2014: http://jdesousa.univ.free.fr/data/rta/wtoaug14.xls
• As for
1st March 2014: http://jdesousa.univ.free.fr/data/rta/wtofeb14.xls
• As for
3rd February 2013: http://jdesousa.univ.free.fr/data/rta/wtofeb13.xls
• As for
26th October 2012: http://jdesousa.univ.free.fr/data/rta/wtooct12.xls
• As for 15
December 2008: http://jdesousa.univ.free.fr/data/rta/wtodec08.xls
• As for 15
September 2006 (used for a previous version of the code): http://jdesousa.univ.free.fr/data/rta/wtosep06.xls
• For the
most resent list: here
• N.B.: the
most recent WTO list gives information on current RTAs and not on
former RTAs.
(e.g. agreements between Central Eastern European countries and
the EU are not mentioned
since the former are now EU members).
3/ qualitative information contained in Frankel (1997): Regional
Trading Blocs. Institute for International Economics, Washington, DC.
● Why do I use the term
"country"?
The term country is used for convenience but some areas covered are
not
countries in the conventional sense of the word.
●
What is
the
ISO3 alphanumeric code of countries?
The International Organization
for Standardization (ISO) defines
three-letter country codes for the names of countries.
Here is the current
list.
●
How do I define a
regional trade agreement?
See
http://rtais.wto.org/UI/PublicAllRTAList.aspx and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_trade_agreement
●
How
many bilateral relationships share a regional trade agreement per year
in the sample?
See here for a table. Data on 2015 is
due to the time convention: rta_t=1 if the agreement is in force before
the middle of the given year t, i.e. before the 1st of July. RTAs
negotiated after the 1st of July 2014 are thus in force in 2015!
●
Who is using these files?
Keith
Head, Thierry Mayer and John Ries "The
erosion of colonial trade linkages after independence", Journal
of International Economics 81(1): 1-14.
Keith Head
and John Ries (2010), "Do trade
missions increase trade?", Canadian Journal of Economics
43(3): 754-775.
Gabriel
Felbermayr and Wilhelm Kohler, "Modeling the Extensive Margin of World
Trade: New
Evidence on GATT and WTO Membership", World Economy 33(11),
2010, 1430–1469.
Natalia Zugravu
Leila Baghdadi,
Inmaculada Martínez-Zarzoso, Celestino Suárez-Burguet and Habib Zitouna
(2012), "Is
the road to regional integration paved with pollution convergence?".
Leila Baghdadi,
Inmaculada Martínez-Zarzoso, Celestino Suárez-Burguet and Habib Zitouna
(2013), "Are
RTA agreements with environmental provisions reducing emissions?,"
Journal of
International Economics, 90(2), 378-390.
Celine Azemar, Julia
Darby, Rodolphe Desbordes and Ian Wooton (2011), "Market
Familiarity and the Location of South and North MNEs".
Pao Li Chang and Tomoki Fuji (2012),
"Country
Image and International Trade".
Mathieu Couttenier and
Rapahel Soubeyran (2011), "Diplomatic
Intervention in Civil War: Trade for All or Trade for One ?"
Michael Langlois
Julien
Gooris
Christopher Magee
If you find these files useful, I would appreciate knowing who you are.
Thanks for citing: de Sousa,
J. (2012), "The currency
union effect on trade is decreasing over time",
Economics Letters, 117(3), 917-920.