The objective of this study has been to analyze the sensitivity of trade flow to trade barriers from gravity equations, using different econometric techniques recently highlighted in the literature. Specifically, we compare a benchmark OLS fixed effects specification a la Feenstra (2002), with...

This paper investigates the determinants of home bias in consumption in the beer and wine markets across 15 ‘old’ member states of the European Union (EU) during the period 2000-2009. Two main results are obtained using a theory-driven gravity equation. Firstly, the home bias in beer...

Since 2004 there has been a sharp decrease in border protection for the EU rice industry. Because the EU grants trade preferences to a considerable number of rice exporting developing countries, the reform implied preference erosion as well. By addressing the impact of preference erosion on...

This paper analyzes the extent to which the reduction of import tariffs ‒ as a measure of import competition ‒ affects the quality upgrading of the food products exported to the EU. This relationship is studied within a ‘distance to the frontier’ model (Aghion et al., 2005) who predicts...

Melitz and Ottaviano’s (2008) firm-heterogeneity model predicts that trade liberalization induces a selection process from low to high productivity firms, which translates to an industry productivity growth. A similar firms’ selection effect is induced by market size. In this paper, these...

Melitz and Ottaviano’s (2008) firm heterogeneity model predicts that trade liberalization induces a selection process from low to high productivity firms, that translates into an industry productivity growth. A similar firms’ selection effect is induced by market size. These predictions are...

The paper deals with the determinants of labour out-migration from agriculture across 149 EU regions over the 1990-2008 period. The central aim is to shed light on the role played by CAP payments on this important adjustment process. Using static and dynamic panel data estimators, we show that...

This paper examines the effect of the decoupling of farm direct payments upon the off-farm labour supply decisions of farmers in both Ireland and Italy. We use panel data from the Farm Business Survey (REA) and FADN database covering the period from 2002 to 2009 to model these decisions. Drawing...

Since 2004 there has been a sharp decrease in border protection for the EU rice industry. Because the EU grants trade preferences to a considerable number of rice exporting developing countries, the reform implied preference erosion as well. By addressing the impact of preference erosion on...

Replaced with revised version of paper 07/16/07.