Showing 1 - 10 of 422
This paper examines the emergence and dynamics of border effects over time. We exploit the unique historical setting of the multinational Habsburg Empire prior to the Great War to explore the hypothesis that border effects emerged as a result of persistent trade effects of ethno-linguistic...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005662322
The Zollverein was arguably the most important free-trade agreement of the 19th century. This paper investigates the economic impact of the Zollverein on trade in Germany. Although 1834 is the official date of the Zollverein's establishment, member states in fact joined in a non-random sequence...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10011083241
This article analyzes the stability of bimetallism for countries operating in integrated bullion markets who enact different legal ratios. I articulate a new theoretical framework to demonstrate that two countries can both be bimetallic only if they coordinate their legal ratios. The theoretical...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10011084296
This paper asks whether Germany was ever an economically integrated area. I explore the geography of trade costs in a new data set of about 40,000 observations on regional trade flows within and across the borders of Germany over the period 1885 – 1933. There are three key results. First, the...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005666571
A large literature documents the impact of borders on trade. However, in all these studies border effects are identified from cross-sectional variation alone. We do not know the "treatment effect" of borders nor can we rule out reverse causation. Here, we exploit the border changes imposed...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005791730
This paper considers the location effects of geographically-discriminatory trade policy. A preferential move towards a customs union attracts industry to the integrating countries. When internal barriers fall below some critical level, input-output links between imperfectly competitive firms...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005123966
Regional integration is on the rise again, despite its apparent failure among developing countries in the past. The paper first surveys the ambiguous economics of customs unions. We emphasize that the traditional dichotomy between `trade creation' and `trade diversion' is not particularly...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005497701
Using an extension of the influence-driven lobbying approach developed by Grossman and Helpman, we study the impact of regional integration arrangements (RIAs) on trade policy towards non-members in a three-good, three-country model. We explore under what conditions the formation of an RIA...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005498086
How are the benefits - and costs - of a customs union divided between member countries? Outcomes depend on the comparative advantage of member countries, relative to each other and to the rest of the world. Countries with a comparative advantage between that of their partners and the rest of the...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005791189
This paper analyses the customs union problem in a model containing a continuum of products. The continuum is in three dimensions, so that three countries each have a distinct comparative advantage. Trade patterns are endogenously determined, and changed by policy. This is in the tradition of...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10005791495