The Economic Role of Diplomatic Representation in Promoting Exports

This study empirically investigates the effects of various variables emphasizing the role of economic diplomacy depicting by different forms of diplomatic representation offices, as well as bilateral and multilateral trading agreements, on the export flow. For this purpose, a modified form of the gravity model of trade is used by applying the cross-sectional data method for a group of 50 countries over the period 2012-2016. Additionally, this paper allows for a more detailed study of the trading structure of oil exporting countries by distinguishing between oil exports and other non-oil export commodities. The results indicate that membership in the WTO, along with multilateral trade agreements are important export determinants. Also, due to the existence of some dominated currency in the trading world, currency swap agreements don't still have much effect. The results also suggest that the oil exports are less influenced by diplomatic representations diversification compared with non-oil exports. Moreover some country groups such as East Asian countries have used their own trade offices more efficiently to promote exports while for the other types of missions, the impact is almost similar.