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The Impact Of Financial Openness On Economic Integration: Evidence From Europe And The Cis, Fabrizio Carmignani, Abdur Chowdhury

Abdur R. Chowdhury

We study whether financial openness facilitates the economic integration of formerly centrally planned economies with the EU-15. Two dimensions of economic integration are considered: cross-country convergence of per-capita incomes and bilateral trade in goods and services. We find that more financially open economies effectively catch-up faster and trade more with the EU-15. These integration-enhancing effects occur over and above any effect stemming from domestic financial deepening and other factors determining growth and trade.