When, about twenty years ago, the Euro was created, one objective was to facilitate intra‐European trade by reducing transaction costs. Has the Euro delivered? Using sectoral trade data from 1995 to 2014 and applying structural gravity modeling, we conduct an ex post evaluation of the European...

With ever-increasing political tensions between China and Russia on one side and the EU and the US on the other, it only seems a matter of time until protectionist policies cause a decoupling of global value chains. This paper uses a computable general equilibrium trade model calibrated with the...

While international trade can offer gains from specialization and access to a wider range of products, it is also closely interlinked with global environmental problems, above all, anthropogenic climate change. This survey provides a structured overview of the economic literature on the...

Ein harter Brexit ist für das Vereinigte Königreich sehr viel teurer als für die EU. Mit einer »Hard-but-Smart«-Strategie dagegen würde das UK unilateral auf alle neuen Barrieren, also völlig auf Importzölle, verzichten. Damit ist der prozentuelle Wohlfahrtsverlust des UK und jener auf...

Das Freihandelsabkommen zwischen der EU und den USA, TTIP, wird aufgrund seiner Größe auch Schwellen- und Entwicklungsländer betreffen. Diese profitieren zwar, wenn zusätzliches Wachstum in den TTIP-Ländern die Auslandsnachfrage nach ihren Waren erhöht, aber zugleich müssen sie um ihre...

Im ersten Quartal 2017 wurde beim ifo World Economic Survey die Sonderfrage nach den Wirkungen des Freihandels auf das Land, in dem der befragte Experte ansässig ist, gestellt. Knapp drei Viertel der befragten Experten bewerten den Freihandel als positiv; gerade einmal 15% halten ihn für...

We build on the latest developments in the structural gravity literature to quantify the partial and general equilibrium effects of GATT/WTO membership on trade and welfare. Using an extensive database covering manufacturing trade for 186 countries over the period 1980-2016, we find that the...

Using a new, global data base covering the years 1950 to 2015, we study the impact of sanctions on international trade and welfare. We make use of the rich dimensionality of our data and of the latest developments in the structural gravity literature. Starting with a broad evaluation by sanction...

Do the U.S. have a current account surplus or a deficit with the EU? Since 2009, official sources disagree: The U.S. Department of Commerce claims a consistent U.S. surplus while Eurostat reports the opposite. International transactions are notoriously difficult to measure accurately, but the...

The world runs a trade surplus with itself: Exporters report larger values of exports than what importers report as imports. This is a logically impossible but well known empirical fact. Less well known, in recent years, more than 80 percent of the global surplus is a trade surplus that the EU...