Does every stone fall in the same way? new gravity evidence on world trade

Abstract

In this paper, we examine a series of questions about bilateral trade flows in the light of a rich and up-to-date panel data set. The analyses performed reveal that (1) globalization process has been functioning in a number of ways, (2) functioning of economic regions display alternative results based on model specification, (3) distance is an important factor in the functioning of economic regions, (4) trade relationships do strengthen when countries move toward stronger degrees of their regimes, regardless of democratic or autocratic, (5) the same polity direction implies a higher degree of trade between countries, (6) given the joint regime strength (common direction of regimes) of trade partners, common direction of regimes (higher joint regime strength) implies lower trade, (7) partners belonging to the same religion trade less, (8) partners with the same language trade more among themselves, (9) given that partners are of the same religion (language), same language (religion) implies lower trade.International trade; Gravity; Globalization; Economic regions; Institutions; Cultures