Whether international economic integration arrangements result in more liberal trade at the multilateral level cannot be proven with ease. Integration may start this process, but it may also reverse it. New mega-integration deals: the Trans-Pacific Partnership, Regional Comprehensive Economic...

The European Union (EU) often conditions preferential access to its market upon compliance by its trading partners with Non-Trade Policy Objectives (NTPOs), including human rights and labor and environmental standards. We systematically document the coverage of NTPOs in EU trade agreements and...

Among ENP countries, Azerbaijan is outstanding because it leans on its resource base and sees the EU at the receiving end of bilateral relations. At the other extreme, Ukraine depends on EU cooperation, especially with respect to trade. We develop a comprehensive theoretical concept for...

Sowohl der Aufstieg Chinas als auch der Angriff Russlands auf die Ukraine haben gezeigt, dass wirtschaftliche Offenheit auch Abhängigkeiten schaffen kann, die für geopolitische Ziele genutzt werden. Ein vermehrter Einsatz von Handelsbeschränkungen und Sanktionen kann beobachtet werden. Dabei...

Seit Staaten um Macht streiten, setzen sie neben militärischen auch wirtschaftliche Mittel ein. Diese handelspolitischen Maßnahmen für geopolitische Zwecke werden im Folgenden diskutiert. Auf Grundlage von Russlands Angriffskrieg lassen sich für den Westen Eingriffe in den Freihandel...

The last two centuries witnessed the rise and fall of empires. We construct a model which rationalises this in terms of the changing trade gains from empires. In the model, empires are arrangements that reduce trade cost between an industrial metropole and the agricultural periphery. During...

Die Theorie der strategischen Handelspolitik kam in den frühen 1980er Jahren auf. Dabei ging es um die Frage, wie ein Land im Fall von Marktunvollkommenheiten - vor allem oligopolistischen Märkten – den eigenen Wohlstand durch gezielte handelspolitische Maßnahmen steigern kann. Heute gibt...

In this paper I survey and reinterpret the extensive literature on Europe's Great Depression. I argue that Europe could not exploit her vast economic potential after 1918, because the war had not yet come to an end - indeed it did not end before 1945. Both, domestic and international...

When national competitiveness is invoked as a policy objective, trade experts have learned to retort that countries don't trade, firms do. This focus on the importance of the firm in international trade is consistent with the most recent developments in trade theory, but policy needs to catch...

The policy advice given by economists in international institutions is influenced by their prior academic work. In my case, applied general equilibrium work resulted both in a belief in the necessity of decentralized markets and in a distrust of their ability to be stable. A career in...