French (2011) can analytically show that the standard Anderson and van Wincoop (2003) gravity trade model is only correctly specified for disaggregate data; gravity trade model analysis should be done at product level and then estimation results should be reaggregated. If however gravity trade...

There has been an extensive discussion on the applicability of Poisson Pseudo Maximum Likelihood (PPML) to trade. Here, we are going to analyse again the performance of PPML but in the light of a bimodal distribution; in addition, we also explicitly account for excess zeros. Simulations are...

Recently, discussion about the appropriate estimation of gravity trade models has started in agriculture. Here, we are going to review recent developments in the literature. It appears that fixed effects Poisson Pseudo Maximum Likelihood is not only the only consistent estimator [Santos Silva...

Since the work of FEENSTRA (2002), the standard ANDERSON & VAN WINCOOP (2003) Gravity Model has been estimated using a fixed effects approach. However, a fixed effects approach has a major drawback: it does not allow for the estimation of exporter- and importer-invariant variables. Thus,...

The 2003 reforms of the Common Agricultural policy of the European Union introduced decoupled income transfers as the most prominent policy instrument. However, member states were given substantial discretion over the degree and timing of the reform implementation. As a result, different...

Die ersten drei Artikel (Kapitel 3, 4 und 5) analysieren unter welchen Bedingungen positive oder negative Auswirkungen von Standards auf Handel überwiegen. Wir betrachten die folgenden Determinanten: Marktkonzentration, Produktkomplexität, Qualität öffentlicher Institutionen und die Art des...

In this thesis, I dealt with the question if the so-called 'New New Trade Theory' can also be applied to the agricultural sector, and if so, which recommendations arise. The thesis consists of five discussion papers dealing with a special problem each. While the first two papers focus on...