In this paper, we propose a new approach to represent a country's outward orientation. Prior work mostly uses indicators of aggregate trade intensity, trade policy or trade restrictiveness. Our approach offers a broader perspective as it measures a country's level of integration not only by its...

Exiting the middle-income trap entails costly improvements in state capacity. That deep economic integration induces powerful actors to support increasing state capacities remain underresearched. Here we ask: Under what conditions can deep economic integration yield increases in state capacity?...

National authorities are presently not willing to install a supranational authority vested with the competencies required to internalize global environmental externalities. Therefore we adopt a dynamic framework of two economies (i.e. Europe and rest of world) and analyze their strategic...