BRICS, the 15-year-old alliance of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, has emerged as an important actor on the global political and economic stage, not least by expanding its membership to include middle-power states Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in...

This article uses Aufbau Ost (or reconstruction of the East) of the new German states as a structural model to estimate the possible costs of an Aufbau Ost 2.0 of Ukraine while taking institutional differences into account. Based on three approaches, the model is validated for the new German...

As part of its sanctions regime, the United States recently announced the imposition of punitive import tariffs on 570 product groups from Russia. The European Union may follow suit and enact sanctions on Russia that mirror the US sanctions in scale and scope. Using a sector-specific...

In the current economic policy debate, there are often calls to reverse advanced developments in globalisation and the international division of labour. Reasons such as greater business resilience, political independence and, from a climate perspective, less harmful production argue for not...

Overall, decoupling from certain countries may be both politically necessary and economically feasible, at least in the long run. However, a general shift of production back to Europe would be accompanied by significant losses in real income.

The EU Directive on Corporate Sustainable Due Diligence has sparked fierce debate about the regulation of supply chains. The directive's objectives are aligned with European values. However, it raises concerns that the compliance costs of social and environmental regulations may be privatised in...

Understanding the relationship between international trade and CO2 emissions is crucial for designing appropriate measures to address climate change. This article focuses on CO2 emissions as one of the trade flow determinants of the EU countries, along with other factors including remoteness,...