Emerging Trade Patterns in a 3-Region Linear NEG Model: Three Examples

This chapter draws attention to a specific feature of a NEG model that uses linear (and not iso-elastic) demand functions, namely its ability to account for zero trade. Thus, it represents a suitable framework to study how changes in parameters that are typical for NEG models, such as trade costs and regional market size, not only shape the regional distribution of economic activity, but at the same time determine the emergence of additional trade links between formerly autarkic regions. We survey some related papers and present a three-region framework that potentially nests many possible trade patterns. To focus the analysis, we study in more detail three specific trade patterns frequently found in the EU trade network. We start with three autarkic regions; then we introduce the possibility that two regions trade with each other; and, finally, we allow for one region trading with the other two, but the latter are still not trading with each other. We find a surprising plethora of long-run equilibria each involving a specific regional distribution of economic activity and a specific pattern of trade links. We show how a reduction in trade costs shapes simultaneously industry location and the configuration of the trade network.