In this paper we quantify the Cost of Non-Europe, i.e. the trade-related welfare losses that would occur under different scenarios of undoing the European Union. Thirty years after the terminology of Non-Europe was used to give estimates of the gains from further integration, we use modern...

This paper develops a method to measure difficulties in market access over a large set of countries (both developing and developed) and industries, during the period 1980-2006. We use a micro-founded heterogeneous-consumers model to estimate the impact of national borders on global and regional...

Competitiveness has come to the forefront of the policy debate within the European Union, focusing on price competitiveness and intra-EU imbalances. But how to measure properly competitiveness, beyond price or cost competitiveness, remains an open methodological issue; and what is the resilience...

We use disaggregated data on car assembly and trade to estimate a model of multinational production. Our framework delineates four theory-based specifications under which all frictions relevant to multinational production can be structurally estimated. In addition to the trade costs and...

In this paper, we show that exporters react more strongly to a cut in tariffs by a distant countrywhen their banks have already been specializing in funding exports to this country. To make ourcase, we build upon a theoretical model where an informational advantage provided by theexporter's bank...

In this paper, we study the impact of a French enterprise zones program -- the "Zones Franches Urbaines'" (ZFUs) policy -- on establishment location decisions. Our empirical analysis is based on a micro-geographic dataset that provides exhaustive information on the location of establishments in...

Models of heterogeneous firms with selection into export market participation generically exhibit aggregate trade elasticities that vary across country-pairs. Only when heterogeneity is assumed Pareto-distributed do all elasticities collapse into a unique elasticity, estimable with a gravity...

The unprecedented drop in international trade during the last quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009 has mostly been analysed at the macroeconomic or sectoral level. However, heterogeneous exporters in terms of productivity, size or external finance dependence should be hit differently by...

This paper analyzes how firms adjust to differences in market size and demand uncertainty by changing the frequency and size of their export shipments. In our inventory model, transportation costs and optimal shipment frequency are determined on the basis of demand as well as inventory and per...

We estimate the elasticity of extra-EU French firm-level exports with respect to applied tariffs, a variable trade cost. We propose a methodology controlling for unobserved firm characteristics driving selection in exports market and for the usual resistance terms. Results confirm a significant...