On the Determinants of Regional Trade Flows

This article proposes an empirical investigation of regional trade flows following a cross-section method. For this purpose, the author refers to a regional context looking at a chosen sample of European regions. She mainly intends to assess the role of the home market effect and the level of transport costs in driving regional export flows. In particular, she is interested in testing the importance of spatial components in regional trade analysis. By simply adapting the gravity model approach to her framework, she is able to prove that physical distance smooths the intensity of trading flows while local transport facilities as well as local demand foster them.