This paper provides cross-country firm-level evidence on productivity spillovers from foreign direct investment (FDI), separately for greenfield FDI and crossborder mergers and acquisitions (M&As). The granularity of bilateral sector-level FDI datasets allows for addressing possible endogeneity...

While standard demand factors perform well in predicting historical trade patterns, they fail conspicuously in 2020, when pandemic-specific factors played a key role above and beyond demand. Prediction errors from a multilateral import demand model in 2020 vary systematically with the health...

This paper provides a theory model of trade finance to explain the ""great trade collapse."" The model shows that, first, the riskiness of international transactions rises relative to domestic transactions during economic downturns, and second, the exclusive use of a letter of credit in...

This paper examines the macroeconomic usage of aid using panel data for a broad sample of aid-recipients. By definition an increase in aid must go toward a reduction in the current account balance (absorbed aid), an increase in capital outflows, or reserve accumulation. It is found that...