This dissertation was prepared by Alexander-Nikolai Sandkamp and completed in September 2018. It consists of four self-contained chapters that empirically investigate different trade dampening phenomena using gravity analysis. The first two chapters examine the effects of anti-dumping duties on trade, addressing endogeneity concerns linked to trade policy. In particular, Chapter 1 exploits the EU enlargement of 2004 as a natural experiment to analyse trade effects of European anti-dumping duties across different exporting countries. Chapter 2 examines the universe of Chinese firm-level exports to identify trade effects across different importing countries. Chapter 3 investigates how the implementation of non-tariff barriers reduces bilateral imports. Finally, Chapter 4 uses Chinese customs data to examine the impact of maritime piracy on Chinese export flows as well as firms’ choice of transport mode
