Abstract | This article analyses the relationship between energy rents, remittances and regional trade cooperation in Central Asia. The study shows that access to energy rents makes the governments of energy-rich Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan reluctant to expand regional trade cooperation, while remittances earned by citizens of resource-poor Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan disincentivise the elites of those countries from working towards cooperation. Furthermore, the study demonstrates that Uzbekistan, which sits between two sets of cases because of depleting resources and unstable remittance inflows, is most likely to push for regional connectivity. Our findings are confirmed by the gravity model of trade and have implications for the studies of regional cooperation in other parts of the world. |
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