Intra-National versus International Trade: How Stubborn are Nations in Global Integration? / Shang-Jin Wei.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wei, Shang-Jin.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w5531.

NBER working paper series no. w5531

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Intra-National versus International Trade

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 1996.

Summary:

This paper examines the home country bias in the goods market among OECD countries. An average country imports about two and a half times as much from itself as from an otherwise identical foreign country, after controlling for sizes of exporter and importer, their direct distance, geographic positions relative to the rest of the world and a possible linguistic tie. If one believes that the substitutability among goods produced in OECD countries is high, as it seems reasonable, the observed bias implies relatively small non- tariff barriers. Over 1982-94, the home bias of OECD countries as a whole exhibited a slow but steady decline. The bias in a typical member country of the European Community relative to its imports from other member countries showed a fifty percent decline during the period.

Notes:

Print version record

April 1996.