Access to critical raw materials (CRMs) is increasingly being shaped by geopolitical dynamics, fuelling a global competition for supply security. This paper applies the gravity model of trade to examine how OECD countries leverage Aid for Trade (AfT), Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs), and...

Enhancing digital connectivity, advancing cross-border e-commerce (CE), and optimizing logistics performance (LP) are fundamental pillars for boosting trade flows between trading partners. However, the multifaceted impacts of digitalization, CE, and LP on China-Africa (C-A) trade remain...

Integration into global markets serves as a powerful catalyst for economic growth in developing economies, offering the potential to create high paying jobs and foster development. This paper uses the structural gravity model to quantify potential merchandise exports for Asian economies,...

Environmentally friendly goods and techniques such are essential for the transition to a greener economy. Trade policy can help support the global diffusion of these goods and technologies by removing barriers to trade, lowering the cost of the green transition for consumers, firms, and...

This study investigates how Chinese ownership in European ports affects trade flows between China and Eurozone countries, set against the backdrop of recent global economic disruptions that have emphasized the crucial role of maritime trade and port efficiency. An augmented gravity model was...

This study examines two key challenges in services trade research: the reliability of trade data and the measurement of non-tariff barriers, particularly the Services Trade Restrictiveness Index (STRI). Using firm-level panel data from Türkiye with fixed effects, we show that international data...

We use heterogeneity-robust difference-in-differences (DiD) methods to evaluate the impact of membership in the European Union (EU) Single Market on international trade. On the policy front, we provide evidence that: (i) On average, the EU has been very effective in promoting trade among its...

International migrants choose their country of residence to maximize their utility. As a result, their choices are informative about the relative attractiveness of countries. This paper explains why Spain became the fourth most attractive country in the world for international migrants in the...

The inclusion of domestic (intra-national) trade when estimating structural gravity models is an important topic and has been shown to solve empirical puzzles such as the missing globalization puzzle (Yotov, 2022). Despite efforts to construct intra-national trade data, its measurement still...

Campos et al. (2021) (Economics Letters) show that including domestic trade flows in the gravity model is important for estimating the effect of trade agreements (TAs), regardless of how these flows are measured. Without domestic trade flows, TA effects are small, negative, and statistically...

Using a state of the art structural gravity model, we investigate the impact of various (post-)colonial cocoa trading arrangements on the cocoa trade between developing cocoa producer countries and rich industrial cocoa consumer nations in the time period 1951 to 1999. We find that in particular...

Countries routinely participate in intergovernmental forums such as the G7, G20, BRICS, and MIKTA. These informal institutions—unlike formal bodies such as the EU and WTO—lack permanent administrative structures, operate through rotating presidencies, and do not issue legally binding...

Regions worldwide are increasingly establishing customs unions, yet their impact on trade remains uncertain. This study investigates the influence of the East African Community (EAC) customs union on intra-regional trade performance, specifically assessing whether customs unions affect exports,...

Ninety-five percent of Kenyan coffee is exported as green coffee in the international market in Europe. As a spot market, this presents a problem in that the currency of the foreign market differs from that of the domestic country (Kenya), resulting in an exchange rate problem. Kenya has a...

India's trade with Eurasian countries has been improving steadily. India is aggressively addressing its troubles of accessibility and connectivity to the region, primarily through International North South Transport Corridor (INSTC). The present study has been undertaken to empirically examine...

EU enlargements have given new EU member states access to the European Single Market. While tariff liberalisation was already completed at the time of enlargement, technical regulations were subject to different sectoral approaches, including harmonisation and mutual recognition. We employ a...

This study investigates the impact of OLI paradigm and the IDP on the gravity model of FDI in EECA region. Using panel data from 1995 to 2017, the analysis employs POLS, Fixed Effects, and Random Effects estimation methods to examine the determinants of FDI inflows. The results highlight the...

This study seeks to analyze the impact of land reform on the export performance of tobacco, since the cash crop is a major foreign currency earner for Zimbabwe. A gravity model was adopted for the study using secondary panel data from 1992 to 2018. The findings show that 17.2% of the explanatory...

The Great Depression is the canonical case of a widespread currency war, with more than 70 countries devaluing their currencies relative to gold between 1929 and 1936. What were the currency war’s effects on trade flows? We use newly-compiled, highfrequency bilateral trade data and gravity...

What is the future of international migration flows? The growing availability of bilateral international migration data has resulted in an improved understanding of the determinants of migration flows through the estimation of theory-based gravity models. However, the use of these models as a...

We investigate the effects of US-imposed trade sanctions on the global trade patterns of sanctioned countries by employing a gravity model that incorporates data spanning from 1980 to 2020 across 79 nations. The results reveal that both partial and complete US sanctions lead to significant...

Extreme weather induced migration is a growing concern for low and middle income countries due to the increased variability in the weather and the increase in the number of extreme weather disasters associated with climate change. The objective of this paper is to examine the inter-linkages...

Over the past twenty years, China has become the world's largest trading nation and a significant trading partner for most countries. Despite these important links, concerns regarding China's commercial and diplomatic goals persist due to its unique state-centric economic structure. This paper...

This paper examines the cyclicality of remittance inflows to economies in Asia and the Pacific, aiming to identify major factors associated with remittances using gravity models of bilateral remittances. An analysis that assesses correlation coefficients between the cyclical factors of...

Background Large vessels that call at European ports will have to pay for their CO2 emissions from transporting cargo that enters or goes from a European port since January 2024. The costs will increase with increasing global trade. This results in a higher pollution level, including greenhouse...

This paper examines the impact of Brexit on international student migration. In a structural gravity model, we estimate student migration between 69 countries for counterfactual scenarios in which the United Kingdom leaves the European Union one year before the referendum. This exercise reveals...