The nature of international trade has changed significantly. For centuries, trade concentrated on the exchange of finished goods. It now increasingly involves bits of value that are added at different locations to combine into one final product. Therefore, trade in functions or tasks are of...

This paper summarizes in a non-technical way what we know from empirical studies based on firm-level data about the mutual links between international activities of firms and productivity. It is written with a view to inform policy makers in an evidence-based way. A special focus is on the...

In Medien und Öffentlichkeit ist die Meinung, dass die infolge von Globalisierung und Strukturwandel freigesetzten Arbeitskräfte zu den Verlierern der Globalisierung gehörten, weit verbreitet. Gemäss Handelstheorie muss dem allerdings nicht so sein. Schliesslich führt die Globalisierung...

The rapid transition of China from a closed agricultural society to an industrial powerhouse has been associated with a rapid increase in the share of China in world trade. As the world is taking the full measure of this phenomenon, tensions have been arising ranging from holding China partly...

This paper investigates Samuelson's (JEP, 2004) argument that technical progress of the trade partner may hurt the home country. We illustrate this prospect in a simple Ricardian model for sitations with outward knowledge spillovers. Within this framework Samuelson's Act II effects may occur....

Die ökonomischen Implikationen einer verstärkten Migration deutscher Unternehmen nach Osteuropa und Asien werden derzeit intensiv diskutiert. Wichtige wirtschaftliche Akteure sind KMU des verarbeitenden Gewerbes, die zum einen Elemente komplexer Wertschöpfungsketten bilden, zum anderen...

Even though the automobile industry is technologically advanced, the increasing integration of low-income countries into the global division of labor has put competitive pressure on traditional automobile producing countries. New end-producers emerged in Asia, Latin America as well as Southern...

Why do borders still matter for economic activity? The reunification of Germany in 1990 provides a unique natural experiment for examining the effect of political borders on trade both in the cross-section and over time. With the fall of the Berlin Wall and the rapid formation of a political and...

The rise of China as an economic and political driver of the global economy is likely to be one of the defining moments of world history. Its dynamism and international expansion are on the verge of creating a critical disruption in the global order that has held sway for over 60 years. As such,...

Vietnam's development performance since the early 1990s has been one of the strongest in the world, following the introduction of its doi moi (renovation) economic reform programme in 1986. The core of Vietnam's economic strategy has been rapid integration into the world economy, with a...