Although the articles by Coughlin & Novy and Cheptea apply a
well-established and widely used tool to analyze empirical patterns of
trade, the gravity model, Tibor Besedesˇ has introduced another interesting
technique to describe trade activities, survival analysis. Moving beyond
the documentation of the notable finding that the majority of trade relationships
are remarkably short-lived, Besedesˇ demonstrates how survival
analysis can be used to explore the effects of trade liberalization. For the
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), he presents evidence
that the trade agreement has actually increased the hazard of exports
ceasing, along with some other interesting findings