Was the collapse of world trade between 1928 and 1937 caused by higher transport costs, increased protectionism or the … equilibrium effects of bilateral distance, international borders, and the payment system on trade. My results suggest that had … average tari and non-tari trade barriers remained at their 1928 level, total international trade would have been 64.6 % higher …

"Although many modern studies find large and significant effects of prior colonial status on bilateral trade, there is … very little empirical research that has focused on the contemporaneous impact of empire on trade. We employ a new database … of over 21,000 bilateral trade observations during the Age of High Imperialism, 1870-1913, to quantitatively assess the …