Large volumes of e-waste collected under formal schemes in high-income countries are still processed informally in developing ones, despite continuous policy efforts to reverse this trend. This paper shows that the persistence of informal e-waste processing is a consequence of how global waste...

New importers increase their conditional survival rate and import share over time. However, a model of multi-input firms with an import entry cost and stochastic import costs cannot replicate these dynamics. I show that an extended model can be reconciled with the data. I calibrate both models...

Letters of credit are a key trade finance instrument that covers more than 10 percent of global trade, with a notably larger role in low-and middle-income economies. Studying detailed trade data from Viet Nam, we document how letter of credit use varies with firm characteristics. We show that...

In April and in October 2025 China imposed export controls on rare earths amid escalating trade tensions with the United States. Although these measures were too short-lived to generate macroeconomic effects, they signalled China's ability to draw on its dominant position in the rare earth...

This study examines the short-run dynamics and long-run determinants of bilateral trade between Saudi Arabia (KSA) and Jordan during the period of 1995-2024 using the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach. Employing a country-pair time series framework, the analysis...

The majority of global trade moves by sea through hub-and-spoke shipping networks. We investigate the returns to being a hub country by analyzing how transshipment activity shapes trade and supply chains. We show that most US imports especially from smaller origin countries are transshipped via...

This study examines the impact of the South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) on participation in global value chains (GVCs) among South Asian economies, specifically Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. This research offers new empirical insights into the relatively underexplored relationship...

Using a state of the art structural gravity model, we investigate the impact of various (post-)colonial cocoa trading arrangements on the cocoa trade between developing cocoa producer countries and rich industrial cocoa consumer nations in the time period 1951 to 1999. We find that in particular...

This paper examines whether non-binding ("soft") AI-related provisions in preferential trade agreements (PTAs) move trade and how their effects compare with binding ("hard") provisions. The motivation is straightforward: digital rules are spreading quickly, but legal enforceability is uneven. We...

This paper examines the evolution of global merchandise trade, between 2010 and 2022, assessing the share of imports subject to regional trade agreements (RTAs). A key question for us is whether the share of merchandise trade subject to preferences has kept pace with the proliferation in RTAs....

The Most-Favoured-Nation (MFN) principle has historically been instrumental in promoting stability and equitable trade conditions. In recent decades there has been a rise in bilateral and regional trade agreements, which deviate from the MFN principle in providing more favourable tariff...

How effective are trade sanctions? We study the unprecedented sanctions imposed on Russia following February 2022, when Western countries banned exports accounting for 36% of Russia's prewar import value. Combining novel, hand-collected records of these sanctions with Russian customs data, firm...

Nickel is essential for producing iron and steel. Endowed with the world's largest reserve, Indonesia banned nickel exports in 2014 to promote industrialization. This paper studies the impacts of the export ban on downstream steel-using industries. A three-sector model shows that, while the...

The global production of fishmeal and fish oil remains relatively stable with an average of 5,1 million tonnes of fishmeal and around 1,2 million tonnes of fish oil the past 10 years. Out of this, the EU produces from 370.000 tonnes to above 520.000 tonnes of fishmeal and from 90.000 tonnes to...

This guide contains selected tables and graphs outlining the current state of and recent developments in the European Union's trade with the rest of the world. Global trade experienced a significant recovery in 2024, also boosted by a surge in exports to the US towards the end of the year. This...