The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the European Union and Canada is the most ambitious (new generation) free trade agreement the EU has ever negotiated. It is a "mixed" agreement with EU and member countries competences. Most elements of the agreement for which the EU...

We 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 average impact of GATT/WTO membership on trade among member countries is...

With ever-increasing political tensions between China and Russia on one side and the EU and the USA 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...

Agricultural support levels are at a crossroad with reduced distortions in OECD countries and increasing support for agricultural producers in emerging economies over the last decades. This paper studies the determinants of distortions in the agricultural markets by putting a specific focus on...

Trade in services is often hampered by domestic administrative barriers, even when countries are members of the same regional trade agreement. We exploit a large reform in the European Union (the EU Service Directive) aimed at reducing such administrative hurdles in cross-border service...

This paper analyses the direct and indirect trade volume and trade cost effects of uncertainty on international trade and economic welfare using a structural gravity framework for a panel of 97 developed and developing countries from 2000 to 2018. Our results suggest that an increase in...

This paper studies the interplay of integration into EU value chains and industrial development measured by labour productivity. Our integration indicator measures value chain trade within the Single Market relative to global value chain networks. Using a simultaneous equation model, we find an...

This paper introduces the third update/release of the Global Sanctions Data Base (GSDB-R3). The GSDB-R3 extends the period of coverage from 1950-2019 to 1950-2022, which includes two special periods - COVID-19 and the war between Russia and Ukraine. The new update of the GSDB contains a total of...

This paper introduces the fourth release of the Global Sanctions Data Base (GSDBR4). Covering the period 1950-2023, it contains 1,547 sanction cases, including the new ones against Russia. The GSDB-R4 comes in two versions, a case-specific and a dyadic one, both freely available upon request at...

We estimate a linear approximation of the market potential function derived in geography and trade models. Using a spatial econometric estimation approach, border effects can be identified by a differential impact of neighboring regions' purchasing power, depending on whether two regions are...