Document Type
Book Chapter
RIS ID
30459
Citation
Jayanthakumaran, Kankesu and Lee, Shao-Wei, 2009, Multilateralism, Regionalism and Income Convergence: ASEAN and SAARC, in K. Jayanthakumaran (Ed.), Advanced Technologies, In-Tech, India, 1-18.
http://ro.uow.edu.au/era/1072
Abstract
The contemporary nature of regional trade agreements (discriminatory RTAs) and multilateralism (non-discriminatory) is widely discussed in the literature (Jayanthakumaran and Danidas, 2007; Ornelas, 2005; Koopmann, 2003; Either, 1998). The argument is based on the fact that RTAs and multilaterialism are interdependent and that both encourage trade creation (both world and intra-regional) and growth. The next step in this process is to test the hypothesis that multlateralism and the RTAs are complementary and that regional income convergence is likely to occur with like-minded and committed RTAs that often have links geographically and culturally.