Since the 1960’s, the EU has offered trade preferences to developing countries in a complex set of systems. Broadly these systems can be divided into preferences for African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, Mediterranean preferences and the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP). We...

By combining new data on bilateral asset holdings with data on securities regulation in an empirical gravity model, it is found that bilateral differences in securities regulation lead to decreased portfolio holdings. Hence, regulatory harmonization can foster financial integration. The results...

This paper applies the concept of trade creation and diversion to immigration into the EU-15 in the 1980s and 1990s. In particular, the 1990s process of East-West integration, culminating in the May 2004 enlargement, could potentially create immigration from the new member countries and at the...

In this paper we estimate a sectoral gravity model for trade within a heterogeneous trade bloc, the enlarged EU, comprised of a high-income group (wealthiest EU), a middle-income group (Greece, Portugal and Spain), and a low-income group (acceding Central and Eastern European countries). The...

Is foreign direct investment crossing Europe towards the East? During the last few years, news of foreign direct disinvestments have regularly emerged on the Portuguese media. The group of suspects have been identified as the new European Union members, where low wages, low corporate taxes and a...

The aim of this paper is to estimate the effect of the EU’s eastern enlargement on the trade patterns of the Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) that joined the Union in May 2004. In particular, the paper investigates whether and how the EU’s free trade agreements (FTAs) with the...

This paper investigates whether the low foreign direct investment in Iceland can be explained by its geographical location together with market size measures. The effects of these factors on inward FDI are analyzed by means of the gravity model. The model is also applied to analyze sector, trade...

We investigate empirically the link between environmental policy and trade with particular reference to the single market and enlargement. Incorporating the methodology of endogenous protection, we question if countries should wish to weaken their environmental policies in response to more trade...