We argue that the narrative of variety-induced gains from trade in differentiated goods needs revision. If producing differentiated varieties of a good requires differentiated skills and if the work force is heterogeneous in these skills, then firms are likely to have monopsony power. We show...

The European Union is the world’s largest and deepest free trade zone. Amongst its members, ithas abolished tariffs and lowered non-tariff barriers. This has led to trade creation within Europeand to trade diversion between EU countries and outsiders. The Transatlantic Trade and Investment...

The currently negotiated Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership between the EU and the United States of America will most likely affect countries, such as Norway which have close ties to the European production networks. Based on a CGE model, developed at the ifo institute, we...

Die Autoren skizzieren die ökonomischen Kosten für die EU-Mitgliedstaaten bei einer Umkehr des Integrationsprozesses durch eine Abwicklung der Europäischen Zollunion, des Europäischen Binnenmarktes, der Europäischen Währungsunion, der Schengen-Vereinbarung und der Freihandelsabkommen der...

We develop a model that combines monopolistic competition on goods markets with skill-type heterogeneity on the labor market to analyze the effects of trade and migration on welfare and inequality. Skill-type heterogeneity and partial specificity to firms’ endogenously chosen skill...

Abstract: The European Union is the world’s deepest free trade zone. Amongst its members, it has abolished tariffs and lowered non-tariff barriers. This has led to trade creation within Europe and to trade diversion between EU countries and outsiders. Deep trade integration and the resulting...

The WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) has been predicted to bring about an expansion in trade flows and real income gains. To date, there is still very limited empirical evidence on the actual post-implementation impact of the TFA. This paper provides an assessment, combining econometric...

On 1 January 2023, Croatia became the newest member of the Schengen Agreement of the European Union (EU) and also joined the Eurozone. This will not only mean a new currency and the elimination of border controls - allowing thus free movement within the Schengen area. It will also mean...

Many countries offer state credit guarantees to support credit-constrained exporters. The policy instrument is commonly justified by governments as a means to mitigating adverse outcomes of financial market frictions for exporting firms. Accumulated returns to the German state credit guarantee...

In the 2000s, China's WTO entry constituted a major trade shock. In this paper, we analyze its eff ects on trade and value chains. The fragmentation of the global value chain makes it hard to disentangle who produces for whom. Value added trade contains this information. We build a multi-sector...