Measuring the efficiency of economic integrations on export performance of member countries by using convergency model

As of the end of Second World War and improvement of international trade networks the total international trade volume increases year by year. Initially, states had looked for cooperation globally (United Nations, General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, World Bank, International Monetary Fund), for next years countries started to be a member of an economic integration model to rise the efficiency of the market. The main target of countries that signed economic cooperation agreements is increasing their total trade volumes. Thus, countries prefer to sign different types of economic integration agreements which one is more beneficial for their national interest. This study analyses the impact of different types of economic integration models on the export convergence and consequently demonstrates the efficiency of integrations. Although, economic integration models have different stages, in essence it is based on the "win-win" strategy. It is expected that economic integration increases export and serves mutual interests of member countries. According to convergency theory, small economies close the gap fast with bigger economies. In general convergency of countries are calculated by income level of countries. On the other hand, this study examines export convergency of economic integration member countries. In addition to this, the analysis of different economic integration models is evaluated as whether the convergency depends on economic integration stages. This thesis takes different types of economic integrations (European Union-28 [EU], North American Free Trade Agreement [NAFTA], ASEAN Free Trade Area [AFTA], Southern Common Market [MERCOSUR], South Africa Custom Union [SACU]) in terms of export convergence and find that high income and advanced technology lead to divergence. The preference of different stages and geographies of economic integrations is seen as reasonable to reach valid results. The results of the study demonstrate that high income and technology countries diverge from the other member countries of economic integration. Therefore, the struggle of USA for updating North American Free Trade Agreement (as signed USMCA) and BREXIT process may be evaluated as consistent actions according to the results of the study. In addition to this, the results imply that countries start to sign more bilateral trade agreements that maximize the interest of countries. Thus, new generation free trade agreements (FTA) will be more preferential between countries.