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Using a structural gravity model, we assess whether EU adequacy decisions on data protection are associated with bilateral digital trade. Controlling for digital-relevant bilateral covariates, including preferential trade agreements and other binding data flow arrangements, we find that countries that received EU adequacy exhibit an increase in digital trade between 6-14 percent, representing a trade cost reduction up to 9 percent. This is mostly driven by the EU granting adequacy to the U.S., reflecting the dominance of the EU and U.S. in global digital trade. We also find that countries that have an EU adequacy determination exhibit greater digital trade among each other, suggestive of a network or club effect. Complementary country-specific analysis of post-adequacy digital trade performance using synthetic control methods confirms the positive effects of adequacy.

This dissertation examines the role of financial institutions as they relate to foreign currency payments and financial stability. The first chapter of this dissertation examines how the foreign currency component of international payments can be costly for importers and exporters by studying the introduction of a payments system between Brazil and Argentina established in 2008. The second chapter of this dissertation examines the reasons behind short-term funding vulnerabilities of financial institutions by studying Building and Loan Associations in California during the Great Depression. Finally, the last chapter of this dissertation studies the COVID-19 pandemic, which is one of the most important public health and economic events of recent history. This chapter studies the effect of stay-at-home orders, enacted to combat the spread of COVID-19, on local labor markets.

This study reviews the structure and flow of formal and informal agri-food trade within ECOWAS and evaluate the trade barriers, financial and quality infrastructure gaps. A mixed-method approach – qualitative and quantitative methods – is adopted which comprises an extensive literature review, analysis of available statistical data on formal and informal trade and trade barriers, a field survey, expert interviews and workshops. The intra-ECOWAS agri-food trade is still at the low level with most of the traded agri-food commodities largely without value addition and characterised by inadequate diversification of the export base. A preponderance of informal agri-food trade along both the formal and informal trade corridors are detected. Livestock, oilseeds, cottonseed, nuts, cocoa beans, cereal, cassava, fisheries, fruits and vegetables were the most traded agri-food commodities, which were not given any concession of passage or facilitated across the borders despite the perishability of the commodities. Agri-food trade flows in the ECOWAS are largely hampered by the heterogeneous trade policy measures across the Member states. This is often a barrier to trade and tend to increase trade costs and commodities prices, thereby constraining the regional trade benefits to the people while also making the trading countries uncompetitive. Women agri-food traders were often exploited and harassed by the different borders’ officials. More so, the low intra-ECOWAS trade in agricultural and food products is due to the low production capacities, which among others are due to the inadequate finance, poor quality infrastructure – soft (trained inspectors, customs procedures digitalisation, certification, etc) and hard (metrology facilities, roads, ports’ facilities, testing and inspection laboratories, etc.). Agricultural trade finance has been identified as one of the key challenges inhibiting trade in agricultural commodities in this subregion. Strategic policy options to promote

Cette étude examine la structure et le flux du commerce agroalimentaire formel et informel au sein de la CEDEAO et évalue les barrières commerciales et les lacunes en matière dinfrastructures financières et qualitatives. Une approche mixte - méthodes qualitatives et quantitatives - est adoptée qui comprend une revue extensive de la littérature, une analyse des données statistiques disponibles sur le commerce formel et informel et les barrières commerciales, une enquête de terrain, des interviews dexperts et des ateliers. Le commerce agroalimentaire intra-CEDEAO reste à un niveau faible, la plupart des produits agroalimentaires échangés nayant pas de valeur ajoutée et étant caractérisés par une diversification inadéquate de la base dexportation. On constate une prépondérance du commerce agroalimentaire informel le long des corridors commerciaux formels et informels. Le bétail, les graines oléagineuses, les graines de coton, les noix, les fèves de cacao, les céréales, le manioc, la pêche, les fruits et les légumes sont les produits agroalimentaires les plus échangés, qui ne bénéficient daucune concession de passage ou de facilitation aux frontières malgré le caractère périssable de ces produits. Les flux commerciaux agroalimentaires dans la CEDEAO sont largement entravés par lhétérogénéité des mesures de politique commerciale dans les États membres. Cela constitue souvent une barrière au commerce et tend à augmenter les coûts commerciaux et les prix des produits de base, limitant ainsi les avantages du commerce régional pour les populations tout en rendant les pays commerçants non compétitifs. Les femmes commerçantes de produits agroalimentaires sont souvent exploitées et harcelées par les fonctionnaires des différentes frontières. De plus, le faible commerce intra-CEDEAO des produits agricoles et alimentaires est dû aux faibles capacités de production, qui sont notamment dues à linsuffisance des financements, à la mauvaise qualité des infrastructures - douces (inspec, This study reviews the structure and flow of formal and informal agri-food trade within ECOWAS and evaluate the trade barriers, financial and quality infrastructure gaps. A mixed-method approach – qualitative and quantitative methods – is adopted which comprises an extensive literature review, analysis of available statistical data on formal and informal trade and trade barriers, a field survey, expert interviews and workshops. The intra-ECOWAS agri-food trade is still at the low level with most of the traded agri-food commodities largely without value addition and characterised by inadequate diversification of the export base. A preponderance of informal agri-food trade along both the formal and informal trade corridors are detected. Livestock, oilseeds, cottonseed, nuts, cocoa beans, cereal, cassava, fisheries, fruits and vegetables were the most traded agri-food commodities, which were not given any concession of passage or facilitated across the borders despite the perishability of the commodities. Agri-food trade flows in the ECOWAS are largely hampered by the heterogeneous trade policy measures across the Member states. This is often a barrier to trade and tend to increase trade costs and commodities prices, thereby constraining the regional trade benefits to the people while also making the trading countries uncompetitive. Women agri-food traders were often exploited and harassed by the different borders’ officials. More so, the low intra-ECOWAS trade in agricultural and food products is due to the low production capacities, which among others are due to the inadequate finance, poor quality infrastructure – soft (trained inspectors, customs procedures digitalisation, certification, etc) and hard (metrology facilities, roads, ports’ facilities, testing and inspection laboratories, etc.). Agricultural trade finance has been identified as one of the key challenges inhibiting trade in agricultural commodities in this subregion. Strategic policy options to promote

This dissertation examines the role of financial institutions as they relate to foreign currency payments and financial stability. The first chapter of this dissertation examines how the foreign currency component of international payments can be costly for importers and exporters by studying the introduction of a payments system between Brazil and Argentina established in 2008. The second chapter of this dissertation examines the reasons behind short-term funding vulnerabilities of financial institutions by studying Building and Loan Associations in California during the Great Depression. Finally, the last chapter of this dissertation studies the COVID-19 pandemic, which is one of the most important public health and economic events of recent history. This chapter studies the effect of stay-at-home orders, enacted to combat the spread of COVID-19, on local labor markets.

We extend the small country trade model with firm heterogeneity (Demidova and Rodriguez-Clare, Journal of International Economics, 90, 2013 and 266) to incorporate offshoring (along with final goods trade). We derive the firm-level employment implications of output and input trade and trade costs and test them using Korean firm-level data for the period 2006–2016. A key theoretical result is that the impact of a change in offshoring cost on employment depends crucially on the net substitutability between inputs where net substitutability is the difference between the elasticities of input substitution and output substitution. Empirically, we find that a decrease in the input trade cost reduces employment and the impact is stronger, the greater the net substitutability between inputs. Our 2SLS results with firm-level imports (in place of trade costs) are consistent with our results with trade costs.

Do low corporate taxes always favor multinational production in the course of economic integration? We propose a two-country model in which multinationals choose the locations of production plants and foreign distribution affiliates and shift profits between home plants and foreign affiliates by manipulating transfer prices in intra-firm trade. We show that when trade costs are high, plants are concentrated in the low-tax country, but surprisingly this location pattern reverses when they are low. Unlike existing models with single-plant firms, the impact of economic integration is non-monotonic, which we empirically confirm: a fall in trade costs first decreases and then increases the share of plants in the high-tax country.We also analyze tax competition and find that allowing for transfer pricing makes competition tougher, indicating a possibility of international coordination on transfer-pricing regulation making the world better off.

Cette étude examine la structure et le flux du commerce agroalimentaire formel et informel au sein de la CEDEAO et évalue les barrières commerciales et les lacunes en matière dinfrastructures financières et qualitatives. Une approche mixte - méthodes qualitatives et quantitatives - est adoptée qui comprend une revue extensive de la littérature, une analyse des données statistiques disponibles sur le commerce formel et informel et les barrières commerciales, une enquête de terrain, des interviews dexperts et des ateliers. Le commerce agroalimentaire intra-CEDEAO reste à un niveau faible, la plupart des produits agroalimentaires échangés nayant pas de valeur ajoutée et étant caractérisés par une diversification inadéquate de la base dexportation. On constate une prépondérance du commerce agroalimentaire informel le long des corridors commerciaux formels et informels. Le bétail, les graines oléagineuses, les graines de coton, les noix, les fèves de cacao, les céréales, le manioc, la pêche, les fruits et les légumes sont les produits agroalimentaires les plus échangés, qui ne bénéficient daucune concession de passage ou de facilitation aux frontières malgré le caractère périssable de ces produits. Les flux commerciaux agroalimentaires dans la CEDEAO sont largement entravés par lhétérogénéité des mesures de politique commerciale dans les États membres. Cela constitue souvent une barrière au commerce et tend à augmenter les coûts commerciaux et les prix des produits de base, limitant ainsi les avantages du commerce régional pour les populations tout en rendant les pays commerçants non compétitifs. Les femmes commerçantes de produits agroalimentaires sont souvent exploitées et harcelées par les fonctionnaires des différentes frontières. De plus, le faible commerce intra-CEDEAO des produits agricoles et alimentaires est dû aux faibles capacités de production, qui sont notamment dues à linsuffisance des financements, à la mauvaise qualité des infrastructures - douces (inspec, This study reviews the structure and flow of formal and informal agri-food trade within ECOWAS and evaluate the trade barriers, financial and quality infrastructure gaps. A mixed-method approach – qualitative and quantitative methods – is adopted which comprises an extensive literature review, analysis of available statistical data on formal and informal trade and trade barriers, a field survey, expert interviews and workshops. The intra-ECOWAS agri-food trade is still at the low level with most of the traded agri-food commodities largely without value addition and characterised by inadequate diversification of the export base. A preponderance of informal agri-food trade along both the formal and informal trade corridors are detected. Livestock, oilseeds, cottonseed, nuts, cocoa beans, cereal, cassava, fisheries, fruits and vegetables were the most traded agri-food commodities, which were not given any concession of passage or facilitated across the borders despite the perishability of the commodities. Agri-food trade flows in the ECOWAS are largely hampered by the heterogeneous trade policy measures across the Member states. This is often a barrier to trade and tend to increase trade costs and commodities prices, thereby constraining the regional trade benefits to the people while also making the trading countries uncompetitive. Women agri-food traders were often exploited and harassed by the different borders’ officials. More so, the low intra-ECOWAS trade in agricultural and food products is due to the low production capacities, which among others are due to the inadequate finance, poor quality infrastructure – soft (trained inspectors, customs procedures digitalisation, certification, etc) and hard (metrology facilities, roads, ports’ facilities, testing and inspection laboratories, etc.). Agricultural trade finance has been identified as one of the key challenges inhibiting trade in agricultural commodities in this subregion. Strategic policy options to promote

This study reviews the structure and flow of formal and informal agri-food trade within ECOWAS and evaluate the trade barriers, financial and quality infrastructure gaps. A mixed-method approach – qualitative and quantitative methods – is adopted which comprises an extensive literature review, analysis of available statistical data on formal and informal trade and trade barriers, a field survey, expert interviews and workshops. The intra-ECOWAS agri-food trade is still at the low level with most of the traded agri-food commodities largely without value addition and characterised by inadequate diversification of the export base. A preponderance of informal agri-food trade along both the formal and informal trade corridors are detected. Livestock, oilseeds, cottonseed, nuts, cocoa beans, cereal, cassava, fisheries, fruits and vegetables were the most traded agri-food commodities, which were not given any concession of passage or facilitated across the borders despite the perishability of the commodities. Agri-food trade flows in the ECOWAS are largely hampered by the heterogeneous trade policy measures across the Member states. This is often a barrier to trade and tend to increase trade costs and commodities prices, thereby constraining the regional trade benefits to the people while also making the trading countries uncompetitive. Women agri-food traders were often exploited and harassed by the different borders’ officials. More so, the low intra-ECOWAS trade in agricultural and food products is due to the low production capacities, which among others are due to the inadequate finance, poor quality infrastructure – soft (trained inspectors, customs procedures digitalisation, certification, etc) and hard (metrology facilities, roads, ports’ facilities, testing and inspection laboratories, etc.). Agricultural trade finance has been identified as one of the key challenges inhibiting trade in agricultural commodities in this subregion. Strategic policy options to promote

In recent years, new and promising developments have made new economic geography (NEG) a popular framework for examining the spatial distribution of economic activity around the world. A major NEG prediction is that wages are higher in regions with a large market and easy access to suppliers of intermediate inputs. Based on this principle, we examine this hypothesis by using provincial data in Vietnam. Since the Doi Moi reform in 1986, the Vietnamese economy has successfully transformed from a centrally planned to a market-based economy. The Vietnamese experience has been seen as a valuable case study for other economies in transition. This paper estimates a structural model of NEG using Vietnamese provinces data for the period 2000 — 2012. Using instrumental variables based on the principle of generalised method of moments (GMM), we take account of potential endogeneity problem between regressors. We provide evidence that the industrial linkages and trade costs are statistically significant and quantitatively important in explaining variation in provincial wages. This finding is robust to controlling for a wide range of considerations. Moreover, local governments need to strengthen human capital as the first step towards improving average wages. Indeed, a better education system is not only instrumental to raising average earnings per worker, but also crucial for minimizing income inequality in the long run. © Hoang H. T., Huynh L. T. D., Chen G. S. Text. 2019.

[EN] The aim of this paper is to analyse the determining factors of trade costs in the top European exporting nations (Germany, United Kingdom, Italy, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and Sweden). For this purpose, we have estimated a trade costs equation to evaluate the importance of logistical performance and other variables that may be key in determining trade costs. Our results reveal the great importance of logistics, even greater than the effect of distance on trade costs, and they also show that in those countries where trade costs are lower, logistics becomes more decisive in international trade. This analysis allows one to draw conclusions on the type of improvements necessary for cost reductions and, therefore, for greater international competitiveness. The research has been conducted for 2 years, thus facilitating the detection of possible changes that can in turn reveal the existence of a trade pattern in these countries.

[EN] The aim of this paper is to analyse the determining factors of trade costs in the top European exporting nations (Germany, United Kingdom, Italy, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and Sweden). For this purpose, we have estimated a trade costs equation to evaluate the importance of logistical performance and other variables that may be key in determining trade costs. Our results reveal the great importance of logistics, even greater than the effect of distance on trade costs, and they also show that in those countries where trade costs are lower, logistics becomes more decisive in international trade. This analysis allows one to draw conclusions on the type of improvements necessary for cost reductions and, therefore, for greater international competitiveness. The research has been conducted for 2 years, thus facilitating the detection of possible changes that can in turn reveal the existence of a trade pattern in these countries.

A sound monetary policy depends on a solid understanding of how external shocks reverberate throughout the economy. This is particularly true in emerging market economies under the inflation targeting (IT) framework since these economies tend to be subject to large external shocks, and don't have a long IT track record. My dissertation studies the macroeconomic consequences of external shocks under IT in emerging market economies, and the policy response to such shocks. The first chapter studies whether foreign exchange interventions (FXI) are effective under IT in the context of commodity prices shocks. It also explores the extent to which lack of public confidence in the central bank's ability to meet its inflation objectives may frustrate the success of FXI. Using an interacted panel vector autoregression framework, I find that, when the central bank fights simultaneous appreciation and inflationary pressures driven by positive commodity price shocks, FXI indeed leads to less exchange rate appreciation. However, lack of credibility – reflected by the (de-)anchoring of inflation expectations – can undermine a central bank's FXI effort since less credible central banks increase interest rates more aggressively to stabilize inflation. The simultaneous effort to depreciate the currency is thus weakened in the presence of higher rates. The second chapter investigates the implications of international trade costs shocks for exchange rate determination under different inflation targets. Using a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model I show that, given a shock to international trade costs, the nominal exchange rate exhibits higher volatility under higher inflation targets. The results suggest that monetary policy authorities should choose inflation targets with caution, especially in a context of uncertainty regarding international trade costs. The third chapter empirically estimates the extent to which changes in the exchange rate induce changes in the prices of i

This paper discusses opportunities for trade policy research to contribute more to efforts to integrate African markets, a stated policy priority for African leaders. Much of the economic research in this area has sought to quantify aggregate trade costs and the potential welfare impacts of reducing such costs, including through regional integration. This is important, but we argue that more focus is needed on the ‘micro’ dimensions of regional integration. These center on the trade-restricting effects of nontariff measures and regulatory policies and their political economy underpinnings. Of particular importance is research on mechanisms to support market integration initiatives that recognize the multidimensional nature of the sources of trade costs in Africa, and the associated political economy forces within and between countries and regional economic communities.

This paper discusses opportunities for trade policy research to contribute more to efforts to integrate African markets, a stated policy priority for African leaders. Much of the economic research in this area has sought to quantify aggregate trade costs and the potential welfare impacts of reducing such costs, including through regional integration. This is important, but we argue that more focus is needed on the ‘micro’ dimensions of regional integration. These center on the trade-restricting effects of nontariff measures and regulatory policies and their political economy underpinnings. Of particular importance is research on mechanisms to support market integration initiatives that recognize the multidimensional nature of the sources of trade costs in Africa, and the associated political economy forces within and between countries and regional economic communities.

This paper discusses opportunities for trade policy research to contribute more to efforts to integrate African markets, a stated policy priority for African leaders. Much of the economic research in this area has sought to quantify aggregate trade costs and the potential welfare impacts of reducing such costs, including through regional integration. This is important, but we argue that more focus is needed on the ‘micro’ dimensions of regional integration. These center on the trade-restricting effects of nontariff measures and regulatory policies and their political economy underpinnings. Of particular importance is research on mechanisms to support market integration initiatives that recognize the multidimensional nature of the sources of trade costs in Africa, and the associated political economy forces within and between countries and regional economic communities.

Trade costs for the international supply chain are enormous, even in the absence of formal border barriers. In fact, the costs involved in moving a container physically are less than half the costs of managing the information about the transport activity. Thus, the physical infrastructure in international trade is fairly efficient, but that is not the case for the information infrastructure. In addressing the complexity of the border activities, both public and private organizations are interested in making the compliance process more manageable and less costly, while still achieving the same level of security and safety. For the government, a well-managed border activity not only improves the revenue but also promotes the ports and increases their competitiveness. Based on the empirical finding, a 1% reduction in the transactional cost in relation to the border compliance process is worth $43 billion. Therefore, it is necessary for all stakeholders, both private and public organizations, to support an effective and efficient border-related compliance process, which can be done through the IT innovation of the compliance process.

This thesis comprises three independent papers on topics in international trade (Chapters 2-4). Chapter 2 revisits a prominent gravity model-based empirical literature on the effects of free trade agreements by accounting for a potential bias caused by unobservable trade costs that operate through general equilibrium constraints. It embeds state-of-the-art panel estimation techniques in a recently proposed two-step remedy that features a constrained ANOVA-type estimation. Using a dataset on manufacturing trade flows in eight sectors among 40 countries and a rest-of-the-world aggregate for the period 1990-2002, it finds evidence of significant residual trade cost bias. The direction and magnitude of bias vary across sectors, with the standard one-step approach used in the literature overestimating or underestimating the partial effect of free trade agreements by up to 110%. Overall, coefficients on trade costs variables are jointly significantly different between the standard method and the two-step method. The biases in partial effect estimates translate into biases in general equilibrium effects. Chapter 3 examines the role of product relatedness in the extensive margin of trade at the bilateral level, and identifies a possible environment in which the effect operates. A potential new product's close proximity to an existing bilateral export basket dramatically increases the probability that it will be started to be exported. The implication: it's not just enough for an exporter to acquire product-specific capabilities to be able to export a product to a destination; it must also acquire product-destination-specific capabilities. The effect is increasing in competition. Chapter 4 analyzes changes in autarky gains from trade during the decade 1995-2006, a period of rapid globalization. First, autarky gains from trade have increased during this period, by about 45% on average for the world, with heterogeneity across countries. Simply put, the cost of moving to autark

Trade costs for the international supply chain are enormous, even in the absence of formal border barriers. In fact, the costs involved in moving a container physically are less than half the costs of managing the information about the transport activity. Thus, the physical infrastructure in international trade is fairly efficient, but that is not the case for the information infrastructure. In addressing the complexity of the border activities, both public and private organizations are interested in making the compliance process more manageable and less costly, while still achieving the same level of security and safety. For the government, a well-managed border activity not only improves the revenue but also promotes the ports and increases their competitiveness. Based on the empirical finding, a 1% reduction in the transactional cost in relation to the border compliance process is worth $43 billion. Therefore, it is necessary for all stakeholders, both private and public organizations, to support an effective and efficient border-related compliance process, which can be done through the IT innovation of the compliance process.

This paper first portraits Swedish services exporters and services MNEs; second it analyses the determinants of services exports and affiliate sales; and third it studies the choice of mode of entering a foreign market. Emanating from a heterogeneous firm internationalization model, the main contribution of the paper is to explore the interaction between firm characteristics and foreign market characteristics, particularly policy-induced services trade barriers, in shaping services trade and investment patterns. Exploiting a large and very detailed firm-level dataset for the 2008-2013 period, the descriptive analysis finds that most exporting firms export one or two products to a few, most often other Nordic countries. Still, firms that export to 25 or more markets account for more than 80% of total export value. Furthermore, firms that export to 20 countries export more than 60% to their main destination country. Similar patterns are found for affiliate sales. Using a gravity approach we then study the determinants of the extensive and intensive margin of exports and affiliate sales in pooled as well as sector level regressions. We find that trade costs, both natural and policy-induced have the largest impact on the extensive margin of trade, suggesting that trade costs facing services exporters are mainly in the form of fixed entry costs. This is further supported by the finding that incumbency is the most important determinant of future exports and affiliate sales, and incumbents tend to be protected and thrive behind trade barriers., Jean Monnet TIISA Network (The Trade and Investment in Services Associates Network)

This paper presents the features of a survey on Swedish firms’ export decisions conducted in February 2015 focusing on a sample of 10,000 small and medium-sized enterprises. The survey was divided into two major sections. The first section targeted all firms and focused on firms’ general situation (e.g. competition, type of co-operations, etc.). The second section focused on firms’ export decisions and was only addressed to current, former and future exporters. Around 3,000 firms answered the questionnaire within a three-month period. We show that the survey does not suffer from any non-response biases by investigating whether respondents differ from non-respondents, whether early respondents differ from late ones, and whether the respondents’ answers can be validated with external and more objective information. We are therefore confident that the survey may be used to represent the total population of small and medium-sized enterprises in the Swedish manufacturing sector.

Since 2008, G20 leaders have repeatedly committed themselves not to resort to protectionism and to conclude WTO negotiations expeditiously. The jury is out on the extent to which they lived up to the first promise; they failed to deliver the second. Anemic global trade growth rates since 2010 implies that trade has not been a driver of much needed economic dynamism. This paper argues that the G20 should pursue a more ambitious trade agenda and that there is much that greater leadership by the G20 could do to reinvigorate the trading system. A first step would be to commit to concrete actions that can be implemented by individual governments on a concerted basis and that center on reducing trade costs and improving access to services for firms. The Chinese presidency should also seek to have the G20 commit to more effective monitoring and analysis of trade policy broadly defined (including subsidies and investment incentives) and the impact of the many preferential trade agreements involving China, the EU and the US, the world's largest trading powers.

This dissertation consists of two essays on agricultural trade in sub-Saharan Africa. The 42 countries of continental sub-Saharan Africa include 21 of the 24 poorest countries in the world. Unlike industrialized countries where structural transformation and income growth have led to declines in the share of agriculture in overall output and consumption, nearly two-thirds of the labor force in sub-Saharan Africa still works in agriculture and nearly half of consumer expenditure is on food. Agricultural products are produced by tens of millions of farmers and consumed by hundreds of millions of consumers across Africa. In this dissertation, I show that the costs of trade between producers and consumers in different locations are very high, I explore the consequences of these high trade costs, and I evaluate the effects of a type of trade policy that has been used to insulate markets in particular countries from high and volatile prices elsewhere. My findings can be used to improve the design and understand the impact of infrastructure investment, trade liberalization, agricultural technology adoption, and price stabilization initiatives in Africa and elsewhere in the developing world.In the first chapter, I estimate and solve a dynamic model of agricultural storage and trade in sub-Saharan Africa using a new intra-national dataset of monthly prices and production of the 6 major staple grains from 2003 to 2013 and a new approach to identify cost parameters when trade and storage are unobserved. The model includes monthly storage in each of 230 large hub markets in all 42 countries of continental sub-Saharan Africa, monthly trade between them, as well as monthly trade with the world market through 30 ports. I find median intra-national trade costs over 5 times higher than elsewhere in the world along with significant extra costs for trade across borders and with the world market. I then simulate a counterfactual in which trade costs for staple grains are lowered to matc

Since 2008, G20 leaders have repeatedly committed themselves not to resort to protectionism and to conclude WTO negotiations expeditiously. The jury is out on the extent to which they lived up to the first promise; they failed to deliver the second. Anemic global trade growth rates since 2010 implies that trade has not been a driver of much needed economic dynamism. This paper argues that the G20 should pursue a more ambitious trade agenda and that there is much that greater leadership by the G20 could do to reinvigorate the trading system. A first step would be to commit to concrete actions that can be implemented by individual governments on a concerted basis and that center on reducing trade costs and improving access to services for firms. The Chinese presidency should also seek to have the G20 commit to more effective monitoring and analysis of trade policy broadly defined (including subsidies and investment incentives) and the impact of the many preferential trade agreements involving China, the EU and the US, the world's largest trading powers.

Since 2008, G20 leaders have repeatedly committed themselves not to resort to protectionism and to conclude WTO negotiations expeditiously. The jury is out on the extent to which they lived up to the first promise; they failed to deliver the second. Anemic global trade growth rates since 2010 implies that trade has not been a driver of much needed economic dynamism. This paper argues that the G20 should pursue a more ambitious trade agenda and that there is much that greater leadership by the G20 could do to reinvigorate the trading system. A first step would be to commit to concrete actions that can be implemented by individual governments on a concerted basis and that center on reducing trade costs and improving access to services for firms. The Chinese presidency should also seek to have the G20 commit to more effective monitoring and analysis of trade policy broadly defined (including subsidies and investment incentives) and the impact of the many preferential trade agreements involving China, the EU and the US, the world's largest trading powers.

This dissertation consists of two essays on agricultural trade in sub-Saharan Africa. The 42 countries of continental sub-Saharan Africa include 21 of the 24 poorest countries in the world. Unlike industrialized countries where structural transformation and income growth have led to declines in the share of agriculture in overall output and consumption, nearly two-thirds of the labor force in sub-Saharan Africa still works in agriculture and nearly half of consumer expenditure is on food. Agricultural products are produced by tens of millions of farmers and consumed by hundreds of millions of consumers across Africa. In this dissertation, I show that the costs of trade between producers and consumers in different locations are very high, I explore the consequences of these high trade costs, and I evaluate the effects of a type of trade policy that has been used to insulate markets in particular countries from high and volatile prices elsewhere. My findings can be used to improve the design and understand the impact of infrastructure investment, trade liberalization, agricultural technology adoption, and price stabilization initiatives in Africa and elsewhere in the developing world.In the first chapter, I estimate and solve a dynamic model of agricultural storage and trade in sub-Saharan Africa using a new intra-national dataset of monthly prices and production of the 6 major staple grains from 2003 to 2013 and a new approach to identify cost parameters when trade and storage are unobserved. The model includes monthly storage in each of 230 large hub markets in all 42 countries of continental sub-Saharan Africa, monthly trade between them, as well as monthly trade with the world market through 30 ports. I find median intra-national trade costs over 5 times higher than elsewhere in the world along with significant extra costs for trade across borders and with the world market. I then simulate a counterfactual in which trade costs for staple grains are lowered to matc

This dissertation consists of two essays on agricultural trade in sub-Saharan Africa. The 42 countries of continental sub-Saharan Africa include 21 of the 24 poorest countries in the world. Unlike industrialized countries where structural transformation and income growth have led to declines in the share of agriculture in overall output and consumption, nearly two-thirds of the labor force in sub-Saharan Africa still works in agriculture and nearly half of consumer expenditure is on food. Agricultural products are produced by tens of millions of farmers and consumed by hundreds of millions of consumers across Africa. In this dissertation, I show that the costs of trade between producers and consumers in different locations are very high, I explore the consequences of these high trade costs, and I evaluate the effects of a type of trade policy that has been used to insulate markets in particular countries from high and volatile prices elsewhere. My findings can be used to improve the design and understand the impact of infrastructure investment, trade liberalization, agricultural technology adoption, and price stabilization initiatives in Africa and elsewhere in the developing world.In the first chapter, I estimate and solve a dynamic model of agricultural storage and trade in sub-Saharan Africa using a new intra-national dataset of monthly prices and production of the 6 major staple grains from 2003 to 2013 and a new approach to identify cost parameters when trade and storage are unobserved. The model includes monthly storage in each of 230 large hub markets in all 42 countries of continental sub-Saharan Africa, monthly trade between them, as well as monthly trade with the world market through 30 ports. I find median intra-national trade costs over 5 times higher than elsewhere in the world along with significant extra costs for trade across borders and with the world market. I then simulate a counterfactual in which trade costs for staple grains are lowered to matc

We examine the role of migrants in trade using a firm-level approach. We exploit a new employer–employee panel for Sweden, which encompasses close to 600,000 full-time employees, approximately 12,000 firms and data for 176 countries for the period 1998–2007. The resulting analysis provides novel firm-level evidence on the trade-migration relationship. Foreign-born workers have a positive association with firm exports. However, immigrants do not have an unconditional positive impact on firm trade. Mainly small firms gain from hiring foreign-born workers, and migrants need to be skilled and recently arrived to have a clear positive impact on firm export performance., Migration, integration och företagens globalisering

This paper presents indices of regulatory heterogeneity based on the rich information in the STRI regulatory database. The indices are built from assessing – for each country pair and each measure – whether or not the countries have the same regulation. For each country pair and each sector, the indices reflect the (weighted) share of measures for which the two countries have different regulation. Estimates of the relationship between regulatory heterogeneity and trade shows that on average a reduction in the regulatory heterogeneity by 0.05 points is associated with 2.5% higher services exports and that the impact is larger the lower the level of trade restring regulation. The trade costs associated with the average score on the regulatory heterogeneity index (0.26) amounts to an ad valorem equivalent trade cost of between 20 and 75% at low levels of the STRI. Regulation has become slightly more similar from 2014 to 2015 in telecommunications. For the other sectors, countries have become slightly less similar over the same period.

The aim of this article is to analyse the importance of logistical performance in international trade and its influence on costs, focusing on the study of emerging economies with a maritime border. For this purpose, gravity models are used to determine the importance of logistics in these countries’ exports, taking as a representative variable the Logistics Performance Index and each of its components. Moreover, the equation of trade costs proposed by Novy (2013) is used to determine the importance of logistical performance. The results show that the analysed countries should continue to strive for improvement in their logistical infrastructure, not only in order to boost their trade, but also to improve their export competitiveness. They have already undertaken both by the private and public sector in an attempt to progress internationally as a way of boosting country growth.

Changes in the costs of trading inputs or final goods affect establishment-level job flows. Using a longitudinal database containing the universe of manufacturing establishments in California from 1992 to 2004, we find that a decline in input or final-good trade costs is associated with job destruction in the least productive establishments, job creation in the most productive establishments, and an increase in the death likelihood of the least productive establishments. The evidence is consistent with predictions of models of trade with heterogeneous firms. Additionally, the evidence shows that the effects of input trade costs on establishment-level job flows are larger than the effects of final-good trade costs. (JEL F14, F16)

This paper takes as its point of departure the unique position recently adopted by Swedish policymakers emphasizing migration as a tool to increase trade. We attempt to empirically scrutinize this position. Our results demonstrate that migrants stimulate exports, especially along the extensive product margin of trade and for differentiated products, but have no significant impact on imports. This finding suggests that for small open economies where numerous immigrants are refugees, the strategy of using migration to facilitate trade may only be effective with respect to exports. This paper also contributes to the literature on trade and migration by exploiting data on gender and age, which allow us to draw inferences on the underlying impact channels. We adopt an instrumental variable approach to address the endogeneity issue due to potential reverse causality. The pattern of results is consistent with the hypothesis that migration primarily reduces fixed trade costs resulting from information and trust friction across migrant host and source countries. Importantly, the results imply that policymakers may be able to promote trade by improving immigrants’ labor market integration instead of simply being restricted to promoting more liberal immigration policies, which is generally more controversial.

There is a growing disconnect between the need to bolster the multilateral trading system and the willingness of the world’s major economies to cooperate to do so. Concerted action on trade reform can help to support the process of global rebalancing and improve growth performance. Rather than repeat past calls to complete the WTO Doha round talks and refrain from protectionist actions, the G20 should build on the experience of the East Asia and Pacific region and commit to a specific trade cost reduction target and support greater plurilateral cooperation on regulatory matters under the umbrella of the WTO.

Changes in the costs of trading inputs or final goods affect establishment-level job flows. Using a longitudinal database containing the universe of manufacturing establishments in California from 1992 to 2004, we find that a decline in input or final-good trade costs is associated with job destruction in the least productive establishments, job creation in the most productive establishments, and an increase in the death likelihood of the least productive establishments. The evidence is consistent with predictions of models of trade with heterogeneous firms. Additionally, the evidence shows that the effects of input trade costs on establishment-level job flows are larger than the effects of final-good trade costs. © 2014 Western Economic Association International.

Extensive research has demonstrated the existence of large potential welfare gains from trade facilitation—measures to reduce the overall costs of the international movement of goods. From an equity perspective an important question is how those benefits are distributed across and within nations. After discussing the possible impacts of trade facilitation, we use firm-level data for a wide variety of developing countries to investigate whether it is mostly large firms that benefit from trade facilitation. We find that firms of all sizes export more in response to improved trade facilitation. Our results suggest that trade facilitation can be beneficial in a range of countries, including those that are primarily involved in value chains as suppliers.

A matter of long-standing policy concern is the limited extent to which many countries in Africa have been able to diversify their economies. The global phenomenon of supply chain trade in principle generates opportunities for specialization in processing activities and labour- or natural-resource intensive tasks that are part of international value chains. This paper discusses what role international organizations – in particular the global trade body, the WTO, and the multilateral financial institutions – have played in assisting efforts to enhance the ability of firms in Africa to participate in value chains by lowering trade costs, suggests some implications for trade governance at both the national and global level.

A matter of long-standing policy concern is the limited extent to which many countries in Africa have been able to diversify their economies. The global phenomenon of supply chain trade in principle generates opportunities for specialization in processing activities and labour- or natural-resource intensive tasks that are part of international value chains. This paper discusses what role international organizations – in particular the global trade body, the WTO, and the multilateral financial institutions – have played in assisting efforts to enhance the ability of firms in Africa to participate in value chains by lowering trade costs, suggests some implications for trade governance at both the national and global level.

Extensive research has demonstrated the existence of large potential welfare gains from trade facilitation—measures to reduce the overall costs of the international movement of goods. From an equity perspective an important question is how those benefits are distributed across and within nations. After discussing the possible impacts of trade facilitation, we use firm-level data for a wide variety of developing countries to investigate whether it is mostly large firms that benefit from trade facilitation. We find that firms of all sizes export more in response to improved trade facilitation. Our results suggest that trade facilitation can be beneficial in a range of countries, including those that are primarily involved in value chains as suppliers.

Extensive research has demonstrated the existence of large potential welfare gains from trade facilitation—measures to reduce the overall costs of the international movement of goods. From an equity perspective an important question is how those benefits are distributed across and within nations. After discussing the possible impacts of trade facilitation, we use firm-level data for a wide variety of developing countries to investigate whether it is mostly large firms that benefit from trade facilitation. We find that firms of all sizes export more in response to improved trade facilitation. Our results suggest that trade facilitation can be beneficial in a range of countries, including those that are primarily involved in value chains as suppliers.

Extensive research has demonstrated the existence of large potential welfare gains from trade facilitation—measures to reduce the overall costs of the international movement of goods. From an equity perspective an important question is how those benefits are distributed across and within nations. After discussing the possible impacts of trade facilitation, we use firm-level data for a wide variety of developing countries to investigate whether it is mostly large firms that benefit from trade facilitation. We find that firms of all sizes export more in response to improved trade facilitation. Our results suggest that trade facilitation can be beneficial in a range of countries, including those that are primarily involved in value chains as suppliers.

A matter of long-standing policy concern is the limited extent to which many countries in Africa have been able to diversify their economies. The global phenomenon of supply chain trade in principle generates opportunities for specialization in processing activities and labour- or natural-resource intensive tasks that are part of international value chains. This paper discusses what role international organizations – in particular the global trade body, the WTO, and the multilateral financial institutions – have played in assisting efforts to enhance the ability of firms in Africa to participate in value chains by lowering trade costs, suggests some implications for trade governance at both the national and global level.

To estimate correctly the effect of variable trade costs of firms' exports, the gravity equation should control for the lumber of firms that participate in foreign markets. Due to the absence of these data, previous studies control for this omitted variable using econometric strategies that may also lead to inconsistent estimates. To overcome this problem the present paper estimates a gravity equation using a new database compiled by the OECD and EUROSTAT that reports the number of exporting firms by reporter and partner country. We show that not controlling for the extensive margin of trade introduces very serious biases in the estimated trade cost coefficients., Para estimar correctamente el efecto de los costes de comerciar sobre las exportaciones de las empresas, la ecuación de gravedad debe controlar por el número de empresas que opera en el mercado internacional. Debido a la ausencia de datos, estudios anteriores han controlado esta variable mediante técnicas econométricas que también pueden generar estimaciones sesgadas. Para superar estos problemas este trabajo estima una ecuación de gravedad utilizando una nueva base de datos de la OCDE y EUROSTAT, que incluye el número de empresas exportadoras en cada relación bilateral. Nuestros resultados muestran que no controlar el margen extensivo genera sesgos muy importantes en la estimación de los costes de comercio.

To estimate correctly the effect of variable trade costs of firms' exports, the gravity equation should control for the lumber of firms that participate in foreign markets. Due to the absence of these data, previous studies control for this omitted variable using econometric strategies that may also lead to inconsistent estimates. To overcome this problem the present paper estimates a gravity equation using a new database compiled by the OECD and EUROSTAT that reports the number of exporting firms by reporter and partner country. We show that not controlling for the extensive margin of trade introduces very serious biases in the estimated trade cost coefficients., Para estimar correctamente el efecto de los costes de comerciar sobre las exportaciones de las empresas, la ecuación de gravedad debe controlar por el número de empresas que opera en el mercado internacional. Debido a la ausencia de datos, estudios anteriores han controlado esta variable mediante técnicas econométricas que también pueden generar estimaciones sesgadas. Para superar estos problemas este trabajo estima una ecuación de gravedad utilizando una nueva base de datos de la OCDE y EUROSTAT, que incluye el número de empresas exportadoras en cada relación bilateral. Nuestros resultados muestran que no controlar el margen extensivo genera sesgos muy importantes en la estimación de los costes de comercio.

This paper investigates the influence of exporting countries' characteristics on the number of exporters (extensive margin) and the average exports value per firm (intensive margin). For that purpose, we use a new database compiled by the OECD and Eurostat in the year 2005, which allows the calculation of trade margins in bilateral relationships involving a large number of exporting and importing countries. We find that there is almost a one-to-one relationship between exporters' GDP and the number of firms that participate in export markets. This proportionality remains when we decompose GDP into an employment component and a labor productivity component. Our results also show that exporters' labor productivity is positively linked with the intensive margin of exports.

This thesis consists of three essays on the composition of trade. The first essay extends the empirical work of Hausmann et al. (2007) to examine the causal effect of foreign direct investment, remoteness, and institutional quality on export sophistication. Using cross country panel data, the finding shows that foreign direct investment has a positive effect, and the effect is greater for countries with low institutional quality. Similarly, remoteness from major markets has a strong negative effect, which indicates competitive disadvantage. With regard to institutional quality, its effect on export sophistication is evident only in manufactured exports. The results are robust to alternative measurement of the dependent variable and econometric estimation methods. The findings have important implications for developing countries that strive to enhance their export sophistication. The second essay provides an explanation of the distance puzzle in a gravity model estimation. Distance not only makes trade more expensive and reduces the volume of trade, but it also affects the composition of trade. The essay investigates the composition of trade as a plausible explanation of the puzzle using trade intensity index. It develops a micro foundation of the trade intensity index and its decomposition into the complementarity and country bias indices. The results show that distance has a negative effect on the complementarity index, which indicates the indirect effect of trade costs on the trade intensity index. The findings imply that the overstated distance elasticity in the standard gravity estimation is a consequence of aggregation bias and a failure to account for compositional effect. The decomposition, together with the empirical findings, seems to provide a better explanation for the long standing puzzle. The third essay uses a disaggregated version of the Eaton and Kortum (2002) model to analyze the relative importance of technology and trade costs for export sophistic

This paper investigates the influence of exporting countries' characteristics on the number of exporters (extensive margin) and the average exports value per firm (intensive margin). For that purpose, we use a new database compiled by the OECD and Eurostat in the year 2005, which allows the calculation of trade margins in bilateral relationships involving a large number of exporting and importing countries. We find that there is almost a one-to-one relationship between exporters' GDP and the number of firms that participate in export markets. This proportionality remains when we decompose GDP into an employment component and a labor productivity component. Our results also show that exporters' labor productivity is positively linked with the intensive margin of exports.

The main objective of this thesis is to ascertain the determinants of trade among nations within a framework of recent and theoretically motivated trade models. It specifically focuses on trade costs facing exports from a country. Moreover, the study utilises recent cross-sectional data for the year 2007. This study integrates a somewhat scattered literature spanning more thanthree decades (from 1979 onwards) to derive the so called gravity model of trade. It then presents a comprehensive empirical analysis of internatonal trade using various formulations of the gravity equation. Trade facilitation in recent years has become a subject of debate at various bilateral and multilateral forums. It is therefore not surprising that empirical research on the issue of trade facilitation has experienced resurgence. This study presents a comprehensive quantitative assessment of trade costs using recent trade models and their extensions. The study estimates the benchmark gravity specification that appeared in Anderson and Wincoop (2003) using country fixed effects andyear 2007 data, in a global setting of 170 countries. Noticeably, our results indicate that both bilateral distance and tariffs still have a significant negative influence on exports. Moreover, better trade-related infrastructure and border governance promotes trade. This study also uses advanced econometric techniques by using Poisson and modified Poisson models such as negative binomial (NB), zero-inflated Poisson (ZIP), zeroinflated negative binomial (ZINB) models. These models were recently suggested for trade gravity estimation in Silva and Tenreyro (2006) and Burger et al (2009) and lend further credibility to our results. Assuming heterogeneity (in productivity) of exporting firms as suggested in Melitz (2003) and Helpman et al (2008), our results indicate that the extensive margin ( that is the number or proportion of exporting firms) is a significant determinant of aggregate exports for the year 2007. The

The main objective of this thesis is to ascertain the determinants of trade among nations within a framework of recent and theoretically motivated trade models. It specifically focuses on trade costs facing exports from a country. Moreover, the study utilises recent cross-sectional data for the year 2007. This study integrates a somewhat scattered literature spanning more thanthree decades (from 1979 onwards) to derive the so called gravity model of trade. It then presents a comprehensive empirical analysis of internatonal trade using various formulations of the gravity equation. Trade facilitation in recent years has become a subject of debate at various bilateral and multilateral forums. It is therefore not surprising that empirical research on the issue of trade facilitation has experienced resurgence. This study presents a comprehensive quantitative assessment of trade costs using recent trade models and their extensions. The study estimates the benchmark gravity specification that appeared in Anderson and Wincoop (2003) using country fixed effects andyear 2007 data, in a global setting of 170 countries. Noticeably, our results indicate that both bilateral distance and tariffs still have a significant negative influence on exports. Moreover, better trade-related infrastructure and border governance promotes trade. This study also uses advanced econometric techniques by using Poisson and modified Poisson models such as negative binomial (NB), zero-inflated Poisson (ZIP), zeroinflated negative binomial (ZINB) models. These models were recently suggested for trade gravity estimation in Silva and Tenreyro (2006) and Burger et al (2009) and lend further credibility to our results. Assuming heterogeneity (in productivity) of exporting firms as suggested in Melitz (2003) and Helpman et al (2008), our results indicate that the extensive margin ( that is the number or proportion of exporting firms) is a significant determinant of aggregate exports for the year 2007. The

The main objective of this thesis is to ascertain the determinants of trade among nations within a framework of recent and theoretically motivated trade models. It specifically focuses on trade costs facing exports from a country. Moreover, the study utilises recent cross-sectional data for the year 2007. This study integrates a somewhat scattered literature spanning more thanthree decades (from 1979 onwards) to derive the so called gravity model of trade. It then presents a comprehensive empirical analysis of internatonal trade using various formulations of the gravity equation. Trade facilitation in recent years has become a subject of debate at various bilateral and multilateral forums. It is therefore not surprising that empirical research on the issue of trade facilitation has experienced resurgence. This study presents a comprehensive quantitative assessment of trade costs using recent trade models and their extensions. The study estimates the benchmark gravity specification that appeared in Anderson and Wincoop (2003) using country fixed effects andyear 2007 data, in a global setting of 170 countries. Noticeably, our results indicate that both bilateral distance and tariffs still have a significant negative influence on exports. Moreover, better trade-related infrastructure and border governance promotes trade. This study also uses advanced econometric techniques by using Poisson and modified Poisson models such as negative binomial (NB), zero-inflated Poisson (ZIP), zeroinflated negative binomial (ZINB) models. These models were recently suggested for trade gravity estimation in Silva and Tenreyro (2006) and Burger et al (2009) and lend further credibility to our results. Assuming heterogeneity (in productivity) of exporting firms as suggested in Melitz (2003) and Helpman et al (2008), our results indicate that the extensive margin ( that is the number or proportion of exporting firms) is a significant determinant of aggregate exports for the year 2007. The

New empirical and theoretical work has highlighted the importance of multi-product firms in international tradeflows. We examine multi-product exporters in the small open economy of Belgium, considering their importance and the relationship between the margins of trade and firm productivity, both across firms and within firms over time. In addition, we employ proxies for trade costs to quantify the extensive and intensive margin adjustments of trade. Linking production and export data at the firm-product level, we discover new and, heretofore, unknown facts about multi-product manufacturing exporters. The large majority of Belgian manufacturing firms export products that they do not produce. More than three quarters of the exported products and more than one quarter of export value from Belgian manufacturers are in goods that are not produced by the firm, so-called Carry-Along Trade (CAT). CAT exports are concentrated in the largest and most productive firms and the value of CAT exports responds differently to variation in firm productivity and trade costs than does the export value of goods that the firm produces.