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Regional Trade Agreements and International R&D Spillovers: Implications for Developing Countries

Yukiko Sawada et al.

Developing Economies2026https://doi.org/10.1111/deve.70025article
ABDC B
Weight
0.50

Abstract

We provide new evidence on heterogeneous international research and development (R&D) spillovers from partners of regional trade agreements (RTAs) and non‐partners using a sample of 45 economies in the period 1995–2017. We construct separate R&D stocks for RTA partners and non‐partners and find that spillovers from RTA partners are stronger than those from non‐partners. Additionally, we further investigate the effects from RTA partners in more detail by focusing on the types and “depth” of RTAs. We show that among different types of RTAs, those covering services are particularly important for international R&D spillovers, and that deep RTAs, particularly those in fields related to technology, tend to facilitate spillovers more than shallow ones. Our results suggest that developing countries can benefit from R&D spillovers by increasing the number of partners with deep RTAs covering services as well as goods.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/deve.70025

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@article{yukiko2026,
  title        = {{Regional Trade Agreements and International R&D Spillovers: Implications for Developing Countries}},
  author       = {Yukiko Sawada et al.},
  journal      = {Developing Economies},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/deve.70025},
}

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Evidence weight

0.50

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20
M · momentum0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

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