This study examines two key challenges in services trade research: the reliability of trade data and the measurement of non-tariff barriers, particularly the Services Trade Restrictiveness Index (STRI). Using firm-level panel data from Türkiye with fixed effects, we show that international data...

Is the harmonization of different food standards between countries in the context of free trade agreements exclusively positive, or is there a risk of high social costs for consumers? The harmonization of different national regulations plays an important role in contemporary trade policy. In...

Even though trade negotiations have increasingly come to focus on regulatory issues, the full impacts, that is, both social costs and benefits of regulatory changes, often remain unexamined in trade impact assessments. To bridge this gap, we scrutinize the theoretical foundations, methodologies...

Can consumers trust that the food they buy in the supermarket, even if imported, is not harmful to their health? What would be the consequences if their trust in existing health and safety standards were to be undermined by recognizing lower foreign standards? Against the backdrop of public...

Multinational enterprises (MNEs) are increasingly dealing with challenges shaped by the new geopolitical and trade environments. Besides traditional tariffs, exporting firms need to comply with regulatory non-tariff measures (NTMs) in the form of technical barriers to trade (TBTs) and sanitary...

This paper draws on trade data, academic literature, government reports, and policy documents to contextualize historic trade dynamics and trace the buildup to recent disputes. Using a comparative framework, we analyze how Sino-U.S. and Sino-Canada relations have shaped and continue to shape...

Non-tariff measures (NTMs), especially sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures and technical barriers to trade (TBTs), have become crucial components of climate, industrial, and regulatory policy, impacting the majority of global trade. However, quantifying their effects on trade is...

This paper leverages Sri Lanka's 2021 chemical fertilizer import ban to quantify the costs of restricted fertilizer access for agriculture, trade, and welfare. Leveraging trade and production data, satellite-based yield estimates, and event studies, we document sharp declines in fertilizer...

Most barriers to trade in services stem from regulatory measures. This study assesses the degree of regulatory restrictiveness affecting trade in services across Latin America and the Caribbean and the degree of disparities in these measures. It then analyzes the impact of both the level of...

Most barriers to trade in services stem from regulatory measures. This study assesses the degree of regulatory restrictiveness affecting trade in services across Latin America and the Caribbean and the degree of disparities in these measures. It then analyzes the impact of both the level of...

Barriers to trade in services remain poorly understood. This paper investigates how regulatory barriers affect cross-border lending and deposit-taking by banks. Using confidential bank-level data from the Bank of England, we find that UK-resident banks substantially reduced lending to and...

Modern regional trade agreements focus on promoting bilateral exchange mostly by lowering non-tariff barriers to trade. But do existing regional trade agreements actually deliver what they promise? This paper argues that existing results in the literature are upward biased because of measurement...

This paper presents a new measure of aggregate trade restrictions (MATR) using data from the International Monetary Fund's Annual Report on Exchange Arrangements and Exchange Restrictions. MATR is strongly correlated with existing measures of trade restrictiveness but is more comprehensive in...

The European Union has implemented various trade policies in the textile and clothing sector, a major global employment generator, over the past three decades. This paper investigates how these evolving policies have impacted the four largest exporters of textiles and clothing to the EU. A...

Addressing climate change requires green technology deployment. This paper uses firm-level import data in 35 emerging markets to examine how trade policies affect firms’ imports of products associated with solar, wind power, and electric vehicle value chains. Panel estimates show a...

This paper empirically examines how standards and technical regulations affect export margins in three African countries at the firm level. The approach involves combining detailed customs transaction data at the firm-product level with bilateral information on non-tariff measures within a...

Higher levels of quota granted can induce and increase exports, but the impact is not the same across all tariff lines. Answers are sought to the question of how the level of exports changes as the quota size of tariff rate quotas changes, thus enabling the investigation of whether unilateral...

This paper quantifies the value of timely WTO notifications for Technical Barriers to Trade (TBTs). Using French firm-level export data, I find that advance notice halves the negative impact of TBTs on export participation, by reducing temporary exits and supporting entry, particularly among...

This study examines the interplay between trade policy, in particular non-tariff measures (NTMs), and revealed technological comparative advantage (RTA) at the NUTS2 level as drivers of foreign direct investment (FDI) over time. Combining data from the Orbis database (Bureau Van Dijk), the NTMs...

This study examines the interplay between trade policy, in particular non-tariff measures (NTMs), and revealed technological comparative advantage (RTA) at the NUTS 2 level as drivers of foreign direct investment (FDI) over time. Combining data from the Orbis database (Bureau Van Dijk), the NTMs...

This study examines the effects of at-the-border and behind-the-border measures on the intraregional perishable goods trade in the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation region by combining trade facilitation indicators at the bilateral product level with an extensive dataset of nontariff...

This paper examines how EU Technical Barriers to Trade (TBTs) reshape firms’ global supply chains, extending Grossman et al. (2024) to incorporate adaptation costs between sourcing partners. To test the model’s predictions, we construct a novel dataset linking EU TBTs to French firm-level...

This study conducted a survival analysis using the Cox proportional hazard model based on the most disaggregated trade data for footwear products exported from Taiwan to 122 countries in 1999-2019. Footwear products can be classified into parts and final products. The empirical results indicated...