This article describes the development of international trade blocs world wide from the 1950s till 2010. We updated the data on international trade flows and introduced a new trade bloc variable based on the intramax hierarchical clustering technique, which defines trade blocs on actual trade...

What are the welfare and employment consequences of preferential trade agreements (PTAs) for developing and emerging countries? Standard quantitative models of international trade which are generally used to assess the impact of PTAs assume full employment and hence abstract from (net)...

Although the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention has been signed by dozens of countries, only some of them enforce the laws against foreign bribery. To estimate whether the enforcement deters exports, we use a microfounded gravity model of bilateral trade flows of 132 countries. Our results imply that...

The study examines the effect of financial crises on international trade with a gravity approach and a large data set covering almost 70 importing and 200 exporting countries from 1950 to 2009. Thus it is possible to put the "Great Trade Collapse" witnessed during the financial crisis 2008/2009,...

In this article, we investigate how pest risk management protocols may affect trade flows of fresh apples. We apply our analysis to two major players in the international trade of fresh apples: France and Chile. These two countries have been chosen because they are among the world’s leading...

Was the collapse of world trade between 1928 and 1937 caused by higher transport costs, increased protectionism or the collapse of the gold standard? Using recent advances in the estimation of gravity equations, I examine the partial and general equilibrium effects of bilateral distance,...

In 2003 the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) was established in the EU, which limited the trade of machinery, electrical and electronic equipment that have at least one of the substances considered hazardous under RoHS directive. Since countries trading with the EU must comply with...

Although the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention has been signed by dozens of countries, only some of them enforce the laws against foreign bribery. To estimate whether the enforcement deters exports, we use a microfounded gravity model of bilateral trade flows of 132 countries. Our results imply that...

This thesis examines the impact of institutions, especially the financial institutions, on international trade and foreign direct investments. The first four chapters study the financial institutions and their impact on trade and international specialization. Specifically, the first chapter...

The paper analyzes whether the political regime of a country inuences its involvement in international trade. Firstly, we develop a theoretical model that predicts that autocracies trade less than democracies. Secondly, we test the predictions of the model empirically using a panel of more than...