This thesis focuses on regional trade and economic growth with a particular focus on African economies in the second and last chapters. The first chapter is an empirical validation of the theoretical prediction of Venables (2003) showing that RTAs tend to decrease imports from the rest of the world to a greater extent for countries with an ‘extreme’ comparative advantage. In the second chapter, I analyze the potential drivers of disparities in growth paths between sub-Saharan Africa and other regions, namely South Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean and the rest of the world. I take a new approach in the analysis of growth regressions by using a nested fixed-effects model with varying coefficients, which allows me to model the heterogeneity in the growth trajectories of each region. The third chapter is a progress report that questions whether South-South RTAs (including eight African Regional Economic Communities) can help increase trade in manufactures among their members as industrialization is one of the main challenges faced by low-income countries. We conclude that PTAs play an important role in trade in manufactures within South-South agreements, particularly deeper integration matters for the participation of low-income countries into global value chains.