Continental trade blocs are emerging in many parts of the world almost in tandem. If trade blocs are required to … reduction of trade barriers against non-member countries. That may not be politically feasible. On the other hand, in a world of …

borders on growth. In our model, political integration between two countries results in a positive country size effect and a … negative effect through reduced openness vis-…-vis the rest of the world. We estimate the growth effects that would have … where political integration would have been mutually beneficial …

disproportionate share of overall economic activity. This distribution of firm size is crucial for evaluating the welfare impact of … calibrated to the observed distribution of firm size, we show that the welfare impact of high entry costs is small. In the sample … of the largest 50 economies in the world, a reduction in entry costs all the way to the U.S. level leads to an average …

be welfare worsening for large countries, and side payments are needed for the …

Trade liberalization and political separatism go hand in hand. In a world of trade restrictions, large countries enjoy … economic benefits because political boundaries determine the size of the market. In a world of free trade and global markets …

' preferences, economic integration with democratic partners has a large, positive effect on a country's democracy score. Instead …, economic integration with non-democratic partners has no impact on either individuals' attitudes or countries' institutions. We …

In contrast to existing work which takes an ex-ante approach and looks for policy prescriptions which yield welfare … improvements, we take an ex-post approach. We ask whether there are indicators which show whether welfare has risen or not in the … wake of a reform. That is, we look for evidence of welfare improvements in outcome space. Necessary and sufficient …

motley assortment of regional trade agreements is not the best way to organise world trade. Moving to global duty-free trade … and uses it to structure a narrative of world trade liberalisation since 1947. The logic is then used to project the world …