Study on the Impact of the Euro on Trade and Foreign Direct Investment

The introduction of the euro was the world's largest economic ‘experiment.' This experiment opens the door to a major advance in our understanding of how a  common currency affects economic activity. When it comes to the euro's trade effects the first contribution of this report is to refine “the numberâ€. Using the latest data and best empirical methodology, we confirm the received wisdom that the euro has promoted trade significantly, with the aggregate impact being in the range of 5% or so. The second main contribution of this report was to advance and refine our understanding of exact how the euro was boosting trade. The euro boosted trade inside the Eurozone since it lowered the relative price of traded goods coming from the Eurozone. The second main channel is the newly-trade goods channel. The third main contribution of the report concerns the euro's pro-FDI effects.Economic and Monetary Union, trade, FDI, euro, Baldwin, DiNino, Fontagn�, De Santis,Taglioni

Trade Liberalization and New Exporters' Size: A Test of Heterogeneous Firm Models

This paper tests an empirical implication of heterogeneous firm models along the lines of Melitz (2003) in the context of falling trade costs. Using the EU's intensive liberalization phase (1993-2002) as a natural experiment, we investigate freer trade's impact on the frequency of market reorientation across the productivity distribution of active firms to shed light on the presence of a minimum productivity (size) threshold for profitable sales abroad. Contrary to the models' predictions, firms that switch from non-exporting to exporting over the studied period are not concentrated in a particular size range. Our findings, based on a rich data set of French manufacturing enterprises, suggest a scope for fine-tuning of the theoretical framework.

Study on the Impact of the Euro on Trade and Investment

The introduction of the euro was an immense political and symbolic step towards an integrated Europe. It was also the world's largest economic 'experiment.' This experiment opens the door to a major advance in our understanding of how a common currency affects economic activity ranging from trade and foreign direct investment to wage-setting behaviour and corporate business strategies