Introduction to the Region and Trade: New Analytical Directions

The study of interregional trade using a theoretical framework has now attracted a lot of attention from economists and regional scientists in the last three decades. Even so, this study has definitely lagged the study of international trade which has been ongoing for over three centuries. Put differently, although international trade has been studied extensively by economists, interregional trade has received much less attention from both economists and regional scientists. Given this state of affairs, it is fair to say that there are several theoretical and empirical questions in interregional trade that have received little or no attention in the literature. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to introduce and discuss the eleven chapters in this book that provide an analytic perspective on some of these outstanding research questions.