A Study on the Determinants of Free Trade Agreement in South Korea: Evidence from Asian Countries

Purpose - Recently, large quantities of factors have affected the signing of the Free Trade Agreement between two countries. Due to this background, this paper selects South Korea as an example to explore the determinants of Free Trade Agreement from Asian countries. Research design, data, and methodology - A cross sectional data of 2016 will be employed and some variables such as real income and GDP will be used to run an empirical analysis under the linear probability model, probit model and logit model. Results - The findings show that the Asian countries’ exchange rate regime, real income, GDP and so forth can increase the probability of signing the Free Trade Agreement with Asian countries. Conversely, the distance can lower the probability of signing the Free Trade Agreement with Asian countries. Meanwhile, although the Asian countries’ import, consumer price index and population also can affect the probability of signing the Free Trade Agreement with Asian countries, the estimated coefficients are not statistically significant at 5% level. Conclusions - According to the empirical results, this paper provides a new scope for South Korea’s government to sign the Free Trade Agreement with other Asian countries.