In the Belle Époque, Belgium recorded an unprecedented trade boom, but growth in output per capita was lackluster. We seek to reconcile this ostensible paradox. Because of the sharp decline in both fixed and variable trade costs, the trade boom was as much about the expansion in the number of...

In the Belle Époque, Belgium recorded an unprecedented trade boom, but growth in output per capita was lackluster. We seek to reconcile this ostensible paradox. Because of the sharp decline in both fixed and variable trade costs, the trade boom was as much about the expansion in the number of...

While the financial crisis of 2008-2009 led to the great collapse of international trade, the European debt crisis in 2010-2013 did not have such a drastic impact on trade. The collapse has been studied a lot in recent empirical literature, but the European debt crisis has not been investigated...