Similar to bilateral or regional preferential trade agreements (PTAs), bilateral investment treaties (BITs) have proliferated over the past 50years. The purpose of this study is to provide the first systematic empirical analysis of the economic determinants of BITs and of the likelihood of BITs...

This article assesses the role of credit constraints for exports at the firm level. Theoretical models by Chaney, Manova, and others suggest that credit constraints are detrimental for exports. We examine this hypothesis empirically at the firm level by using data on Chinese enterprises compiled...

We develop a general equilibrium model of trade with multiple countries and industries in the spirit of Eaton and Kortum (2002) and Bernard, Eaton, Jensen, and Kortum (2003). We structurally estimate the parameters of the model and calibrate it to data on 33 OECD countries and one country that...

The paper proposes a distinction between the two dimensions of convergence-<i>within</i> and <i>between</i> countries-when analyzing the impact of cross-border outsourcing on real wage rates in the EU-15 and the CEEC. In the CEEC, international outsourcing has not affected the adjustment of average real wage...

This paper analyses the effects of international fragmentation in terms of intermediate goods trade on the dynamics of the skilled--to--unskilled labour wage bill ratio in 14 manufacturing industries of the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. Both intermediate goods exports and imports of the...

Foreign trade is usually not based on cash transactions, but rather sales on credit are the rule. The resulting monitoring costs for lenders and the risk of default on accounts receivable are part of the costs associated with cross-border goods transactions. Relative to domestic trade credit,...