Africa’s trade potential: escaping the colonial past by building a self-sustaining future

Africa accounts today for 17% of the world’s population, but less than 3% of global GDP. With a fast-growing population, the continent is projected to reach 4.3 billion inhabitants (39% of the world’s total) by the end of the century. This big domestic market could represent a significant opportunity, but the economy of the continent is not growing at the same pace. In fact, Africa is still struggling to overcome its colonial past, and to gain from its current (new-colonial) dependency from China. The consequences of this can be seen in the extremely low share of intra-African trade and the underdeveloped within-continent infrastructure network. The newly implemented African Continent Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) could prove to be a pivotal step forward, paving the way for self-sustaining economic growth and long-lasting social and geo-political stability on the African continent

The European Green Deal: transforming international trade and transportation

In this Kühne Impact Series, we analyze the effects of the European Green Deal on international trade and transportation. Our main point is that the Green Deal marks a step change in the EU’s climate policy, which will transform European trade and transportation. In particular, by strengthening the EU Emission Trading System and introducing a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, it will increase the carbon price towards its social optimum. This will incentivize households and firms to buy greener products, from greener countries, using greener transportation, and thereby contribute to a more sustainable globalization. In contrast, we believe that the new green agenda in the EU’s trade policy strategy, while ambitious in spirit, is less likely to have concrete effects

A new hope for the WTO? Past achievements, current challenges, and planned reforms

The World Trade Organization (WTO) has a new Director General, and we take her appointment as an opportunity to brief the reader on this important international organization. In particular, we (i) explain its past achievements, (ii) discuss its current challenges, and (iii) summarize its planned reforms

Global trade: a future in doubt?

Talks of “deglobalization” or “slowbalization” have multiplied in the aftermath of the Great Trade Collapse of 2008/2009. The recent economic shock of the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine have re-ignited fears of global value chain disruptions, and lead many in international trade to claim the end of globalization as we know it. In this Kühne Impact Series we examine these facts and find that while few statistics point towards a slowdown in global trade, looking at the broad picture we can still be cautiously optimistic. More concerns arise, instead, when looking at the policy landscape

Manufacturing Europe's Future. Bruegel Blueprint 21, 2 October 2013

‘Industrial policy is back!’ This is the message given in the European Commission’s October 2012 communication on industrial policy (COM (2012) 582 final), which seeks to reverse the declining role of the manufacturing industry, and increase its share of European Union GDP from about 16 percent currently to above 20 percent. Historical evidence suggests that the goal is unlikely to be achieved. Manufacturing’s share of GDP has decreased around the world over the last 30 years. Paradoxically, this relative decline has been a reflection of manufacturing’s strength. Higher productivity growth in manufacturing than in the economy overall resulted in relative decline. A strategy to reverse this trend and move to an industrial share of above 20 percent might therefore risk undermining the original strength of industry – higher productivity growth. This Blueprint therefore takes a different approach. It starts by looking in depth into the manufacturing sector and how it is developing. It emphasises the extent to which European industry has become integrated with other parts of the economy, in particular with the increasingly specialised services sector, and how both sectors depend on each other. It convincingly argues that industrial activity is increasingly spread through global value chains. As a result, employment in the sector has increasingly become highly skilled, while those parts of production for which high skill levels are not needed have been shifted to regions with lower labour costs

Essays on Lobbying and Globalization

This dissertation consists of three essays in which I study the political economy of trade agreements. Using detailed information from lobbying reports filed under the Lobbying Disclosure Act, I systematically explore the role played by both the winners and the losers of globalization. The first chapter focuses on the winners, large multinational firms lobbying in favor of the ratification of free trade agreements. The second chapter looks at these winners when they lose, studying the impact of the non-ratification of a trade agreement on their profits. The last chapter focuses on labor interests and trade unions, the losers of globlalization.The first chapter (joint with Paola Conconi and Mathieu Parenti) is focused on firms. We show that the political economy of free trade agreements (FTAs) is dominated by large firms engaged in international trade that support the ratification of these agreements. We develop a model of endogenous lobbying on FTAs by heterogeneous firms, which can explain why only large pro-FTA firms select into lobbying. The model also delivers predictions on the intensive margin of lobbying. In line with these predictions, we find that larger firms spend more supporting a given FTA, and individual firms spend more supporting FTAs that generate larger gains – i.e. larger improvements in access to foreign consumers and suppliers and smaller increases in domestic competition – and that are more likely to be opposed by politicians.The second chapter (joint with Moritz Hennicke) is an event study on the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and the subsequent shock to U.S. trade policy – the non-ratification of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). We provide empirical evidence that corporate lobbying on trade agreements matters for corporate profits. We find that stock prices of companies that lobbied in favor of the TPP underperformed following Trump’s election. On the intensive margin, we find a strong and positive relationship between the amount spent in lobbying and the cumulative losses of lobbying firms. Finally, by comparing the original TPP agreement with its newer version (CPTPP), without U.S. participation, we provide evidence that firms’ lobbying activity was related to having some specific provisions included in the agreement. In the third chapter, I focus on the role played by trade unions, studying both their lobbying expenditures and their campaign contributions to politicians. I first show that unions are the main opposing force to the ratification of FTAs, and that larger unions, operating in tradable sectors, are more likely to lobby against FTAs. I then study union’s PAC contributions to political parties. During the last three decades, more than 90% of unions’ PAC contributions were directed to Democratic candidates. This has drastically changed when the Republican party took a more protectionist stance under Trump. I find that unions that lobbied against the ratification of FTAs started contributing more to Republican congressmen, particularly those who have taken an anti-trade stance.Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublishe

The EU Emissions Trading System: becoming efficient

This Kühne Impact Series focuses on the EU Emissions Trading System, a cornerstone of the European Green Deal and Europe’s attempt to reach climate neutrality by 2050.1 We discuss how the system has been developed, creates a price on carbon, and the efficiency of the allocation of emissions allowances. Moreover, we analyze the evolution of the EU ETS prices and discuss the recent substantial volatility in the price of the carbon permits. The experience with the EU ETS has been mixed. However, we believe that recent and expected developments will make the system more resilient and reliable – and can ensure a credible and efficient path to carbon neutrality

Is the global economy fragmenting?

Using monthly data on trade in goods between January 2016 and May 2023, this study assesses the impact of recent shocks on the fragmentation of the global economy, looking in particular at the dynamics of friend-shoring, near-shoring and decoupling between the world's two largest economies. Results based on gravity model regressions with high-dimensional fixed effects show that trade flows have become more sensitive to geopolitical distance since the start of the war in Ukraine, leading to the first signs of overall trade fragmentation along geopolitical lines, i.e. friend-shoring. Trade in goods between hypothetical East and West blocs has grown 4 per cent slower than intra-bloc trade since the start of the war. On the other hand, we find no evidence of an increased regionalisation of world trade since the shock of the COVID-19 pandemic or the war in Ukraine. Therefore, our results suggest that near-shoring strategies did not have a large impact on world trade. Finally, our results confirm that the increased trade tensions between the world's two largest economies have significantly reduced their bilateral trade, a trend that has been exacerbated by the geopolitical tensions and uncertainty created by the war in Ukraine

Betting on the Wrong Horse: Lobbying on TPP and the 2016 U.S. Presidental Election

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Foreign direct investment, trade and economic development: An overview

This paper explores the dynamic relationships between foreign direct investment (FDI), international trade, and economic development. First, emphasizing the pivotal role of multinational enterprises (MNEs) - particularly in the context of Global Value Chains (GVCs) - it underscores how FDI and trade are mutually reinforcing. Then, it highlights the convergence of investment and trade policies, pointing out the impact of Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) on trade flows and the increasing inclusion of investment provisions in Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs). Third, examining global FDI trends, it shows that developing and emerging economies are still lagging behind, but they are fast growing in importance. Finally, it draws on a rich empirical literature to show how FDI drives economic development through knowledge spillovers, technology transfer, and export upgrading