What has driven trade booms and trade busts in the past and present? We derive a micro-founded measure of trade frictions from leading trade theories and use it to gauge the importance of bilateral trade costs in determining international trade flows. We construct a new balanced sample of...

The well-known question whether regional trade agreements (RTAs) and the multilateral trading system (MTS) are strangers, friends, or foes (Bhagwati and Panagariya, 1996) has gained new importance with the widespread proliferation of RTAs in recent years. Based on an extensive data set which...

Many studies have found that international borders represent large barriers to trade. But how do international borders compare to domestic border barriers? We investigate international and domestic border barriers in a unified framework. We consider a unique data set of exports from individual...

Most FDI takes place between the developed countries, which suggests that the market-seeking motive is important for understanding FDI. However, given the stylized fact that trade barriers (e.g. transportation costs and financial barriers) have declined over the past 20 years, models that aim to...

This paper reviews the most significant recent developments in the theory of trade agreements. The paper offers an integrated approach to evaluating trade agreements, and uses the approach to present results on preferential and multilateral trade agreements. The paper identifies also several...

The paper explores theoretically and empirically why trade intermediaries (TIs) are frequently used as agents for exports to some countries but not to others. We adapt a standard intra-industry trade model with variable export costs (e.g. transport) and fixed export costs (e.g. market access) to...

This paper documents the typology, forms, scope, origin and magnitudes, driver and impact of illicit trade in East Africa, with particular reference to Uganda. It finds evidence of unprecedented flow of counterfeit trade - suggesting concerted cross-border effort, including greater harmonization...

This paper documents the typology, forms, and scope of non-tariff trade barriers (NTBs) in East Africa (EAC). It finds evidence that reveal inefficiencies and delays at port and customs, transport delays, multiple transit fees, restricted axle load limits and too many weigh bridges and police...

The main aim of this paper is to discuss the cultural dimensions of international trade in case of AGADIR agreement countries. The main finding is that although there is a weak correlation between genetic distance as an indicator of cultural distance and both of total visible exports and...

The aim of the paper is to analyse the changes in the dynamics of Bulgarian international trade before and after EU accession. To achieve this it studies the main trends in the dynamics of the value and volume of trade flows, the openness of the economy, the value and share of trade with other...