Panel Analysis of Asean's Intra-Regional Trade Dynamics
Countries have liberalized their trade policies to enhance economic integration and developmental processes. In this context, this research focuses on the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) to examine impact of economy size, geographical distances, common language, cultural variations, common border, and trade agreements on the enhancement of trade, exports, and imports. This empirical study uses the gravity model to investigate the dynamics of the constructs. Panel data analysis is conducted from 1985 to 2015. Results show that the ASEAN region's economy size and distance significantly affect trade,exports, and imports. It is also concluded that ethnicity and regional trade agreements are effective in increasing total trade. In ASEAN, common border and regional trade agreements increase exports while common border, common language, ethnicity, and regional trade agreement are effective ways to promote imports. This study can be utilized for the formulation of effective policy tools to enhance intra-regional trade of ASEAN member states.
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Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Augmented Gravity Equation, Gross Domestic Product (GDP), International Trade, Regional Trade Agreement.
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(1) Sarina Zainab Shirazi
Head of Department, Department of Social Sciences and Business Management, The Millennium Universal Colleges, Islamabad, Pakistan.
(2) Muhammad Usman Kemal
Assistant Professor, Department of Business Management, Iqra University, Islamabad Campus, Pakistan.
(3) Sabina Shirazi
Management Consultant OIRRC, CA, USA.