Border regions and border effects currently attract a lot of attention in political practice and economic research. Substantial interest in regions located along the frontiers of integrating countries is predominantly inspired by the presumption that their specific geographic position might...

This paper examines data on trade flows between West German Bundesländer (federal states) and East Germany to explore the effect of national borders on trade. Although the data cover only a small fraction of intra-German trade flows, I find a home bias of about factor 2.2; West German shipments...

The European Union is currently negotiating free trade agreements, called Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), with African countries as part of the Cotonou Agreement between the European Union and African, Caribbean and Pacific countries. The paper empirically assesses the impact of the EPAs...

Das Papier untersucht die Arbeitsweise der Handelspolitik in der Europäischen Gemeinschaft, den Zusammenhang zwischen Binnen- und Außenmarktpolitik und weltwirtschaftliche Implikationen der EG-Handelspolitik auf verschiedenen Ebenen. Es wird gezeigt, dass die gemeinsame Handelspolitik...

Using entropy indices and associated bootstrap tests, we describe the distribution of economic sectors across Western European regions over the 1975-2000 period. We decompose geographic concentration into its within-country and between-country components. In addition, we estimate...

This paper empirically assesses the impact of specialisation on the synchronisation of regional business cycles in two core countries of EMU, namely France and Germany. Several specialisation indices are introduced and some first stylised facts about interregional business cycle correlations are...

The paper evaluates the political and economic incentives to conclude the EU-Mexico Free Trade Agreement (FTA). It discusses EU and Mexican trade policy as well as the multilateral context for FTAs. In addition, using a disaggregated approach at the threedigit Standard International Trade...

Im Zuge der Osterweiterung der Europäischen Union eröffnen sich für die Beitrittskandidatenländer gute Möglichkeiten, wirtschaftliche Aktivitäten aus Westeuropa und anderswo zu attrahieren und im Pro-Kopf-Einkommen aufzuholen. Der Aufholprozess der Beitrittsländer wird jedoch von...

We study the impact of changing relative market access in an enlarged EU on the economies of incumbent Objective 1 regions. First, we track the impact of external opening on internal spatial configurations in a three-region economic geography model. External opening gives rise to potentially...

This paper takes a welfare-view on eastern enlargement of the EU, focusing on incumbent countries. Enlargement is decomposed into three elements: Single-market integration on commodity markets, budgetary costs from EU-expenditure policies, and singlemarket- induced migration from new to present...