This paper examines data on trade flows between West German Bundeslander (federal states) and East Germany to explore the effect of national borders on trade. Although the data covers only a small fraction of intra-German trade flows, I find a home bias of about factor 2.2; West German shipments...

Was Germany ever united? Given the historical circumstances of Germany's unification in the 19th century there is no obvious answer to this question. But such an answer can affect the prospects of the post-1989 unification process, and beyond this of European integration. We provide an...

The paper argues that economic integration causes problems for the labor market of high-wage countries due to cross-border labor mobility and the accompanying increase in labor supply. Empirical evidence is provided from an analysis of regional labor market effects of German re-unification. In...