This paper uses dynamic panel data methods to examine the determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) into Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs). Our empirical model shows that the traditional determinants, such as market potential, low relative unit labor costs, a skilled workforce...

International migrants contribute to bilateral trade creation if their presence reduces information costs or entails additional demand for goods from their source countries. Using new data on stocks of foreign-born individuals by skill class, we try to separately quantify those two channels. We...

Influential empirical work by Rauch and Trindade (REStat, 2002) finds that Chinese ethnic networks of the magnitude observed in Southeast Asia increase bilateral trade by at least 60%. We argue that this estimate is upward biased due to omitted variable bias. Moreover, it is partly related to a...

Cultural proximity is an important determinant of bilateral trade volumes. However, empirical quantification and testing are difficult due to the elusiveness of the concept and lack of observability. This paper draws on bilateral score data from the Eurovision Song Contest, a very popular...