The empirical relationship between trade protection and economic growth is surprisinglyfragile, as shown in a number of other papers. After demonstrating this empiricalsensitivity, we address one possible explanation for these findings: that the relationshipis nonlinear. Following the endogenous...

This paper examines the relative contribution of openness and the R&D content of trade to TFP growth for North-South trade-related technology diffusion. The measure of foreign R&D used in the literature on trade-related technology diffusion imposes identical contributions of openness and the R&D...

Do better trade logistics reduce trade costs, raising a country´s exports? Yes, but the magnitude of the effectdepends on country size. Applying a new gravity model to a comprehensive logistics index, we …nd that anaverage-sized country would raise exports by about 46% after a one-standard...

This paper argues that corruption patterns are endogenous to political structures. Thus, corruption can be systemic and planned rather than decentralized and coincidental. In an economic system without law or property rights, a kleptocratic state may arise as a predatory hierarchy from a state...

World governance today is characterized by international organizationslacking democratic legitimacy and control by the citizens they claim to represent. Theyare also criticized for being inefficient. This leads to violent protests and to NGOs havinggreat influence. To address these problems, we...

The robust empirical finding that exporting firms are systematically different from firms thatmerely serve domestic consumers has inspired the development of a new brand of tradetheory, the theory of heterogeneous firms and trade. The establishment of a canonical modeldue to Melitz (2003) has...

While the regional economic integration encompassing the former Soviet Union (FSU) transpiresto be inefficient, there appears to be a stronger interest in regionalism in smaller groupsof more homogenous and geographically connected countries of the region, specifically, CentralAsia. Using a new...

This paper analyses trade specialisation dynamics in two Eastern European countries(Romania and Bulgaria – EEC-2) vis-à-vis the core EU member states (EU-15) over theperiod 1990-2006. Specifically, we focus on whether there is a shift towards intra-industrytrade leading to economic...

This paper explores the role of country asymmetries for trade and industrial policies withheterogeneous firms. Our analysis delivers a number of novel results. First, trade policies,infrastructure policies and industrial policies which improve the business conditions in onecountry have negative...

Microfoundations of the euro´s effect on euro area trade hinge on the timing, thespeed and the size of adjustment in trade costs. We estimate timing, speed and sizeof adjustment in trade costs for sectoral trade data. Our approach allows for sectorspecific impacts of trade costs on sectoral...