The thesis consists of three empirical essays on trade, specialization and development. The first chapter studies the impact of greater economic integration (namely monetary unions) on trade, specialization and location of firms. Cost reductions due to greater economic integration may have...

The first objective of this paper is to present theoretical approaches to the impact of trade growth (induced by monetary integration) on business cycle synchronization which is an important factor of a country's readiness for a currency union accession. The main conclusion from the first part...