The question of whether trade agreements are 'stepping stones' or 'stumbling blocks' to multilateral trade liberalization is not a new one; however, the empirical methods and the quality of the data used to address this question are continually improving. This paper explores this familiar...

We study the implications of services trade for firm innovation. Using a quasi-experimental shift-share design, we find that access to foreign knowledge-related services improves the innovativeness of domestic firms and complements their indigenously sourced R&D. To confront this evidence, we...

Is inflation (still) a global phenomenon? We study the international co-movement of inflation based on a dynamic factor model and in a sample spanning up to 56 countries during the 1960-2023 period. Over the entire period, a first global factor explains approximately 58% of the variation in...

European integration, which culminated in the completion of the Single Market, the single currency and successive enlargements, is now faced with the question of strategic autonomy. Against this backdrop, the present paper has three objectives. First, it assesses the benefits of EU membership...

Viele zentralasiatische Regierungen verfolgen das Ziel der wirtschaftlichen Diversifizierung, insbesondere im Agrarsektor, allerdings oftmals mit geringer Wirkung. Hohe Handelskosten halten Landwirte, potenzielle ausländische Investoren und andere Akteure davon ab, neue Produkte zu entwickeln,...

This paper evaluates the potential welfare gains in the Mercosur region of South America as a benefit of improvement to the trade administrations. Improvements to border procedures and processes leading to border procedures can save billions of dollars for the region, create markets for...

This study explores the nexus of digitalization, formalization, and global value chain (GVC) participation, providing critical insights into inclusive growth. Despite the importance of the nexus, common notions regarding the positive effects of digitalization on enterprise formalization and GVC...

We study the impact of the Brexit referendum on Irish exporters to the UK. The referendum triggered a sharp devaluation of the British pound vis-a-vis the euro and led to considerable uncertainty about future trade relations between the UK and the EU. Using administrative data on the universe of...

We study how disruptions to the supply of foreign critical inputs (FCIs) - that is, inputs primarily sourced from extra-EU countries with highly concentrated supply, advanced technology products, or which are key to the green transition - might affect value added at different levels of...

This paper conducts an in-depth mapping of global value chain (GVC) vulnerabilities, using granular product-level trade data to identify vulnerable products with limited suppliers and substitutability. The study reveals that, in OECD countries, approximately 8% of foreign-sourced intermediate...