FEEM Research Seminar on "Scale Economies in European Trade"
06.07.2017
06.07.2017
12:30 - 14:00
Milan
Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei
Corso Magenta 63
20123 Milan
***
Video-conference
at FEEM Venice
h. 12.30 Seminar
In Milan a light lunch will follow the seminar for registered participants.
Laura Bonacorsi, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei
Registration is required. Please confirm your participation here.
The seminar will be broadcasted via GoToMeeting.
Seminars Office, [email protected]
Using the gravity framework, I investigate whether being part of the European Union (EU) reduces trade frictions between European countries. First, I show that European trade exhibits significant trade frictions in 26 manufacturing sectors, as measured by economies of scale in trade costs: a 10% increase in trade volume corresponds on average to a 0.73% decrease in trade costs. Second, I find that the EU expansion over the last 30 years did not affect scale elasticities in aggregate terms, as an overall reduction in trade frictions would have implied. Some sectors, however, do exhibit a reduction in scale elasticities consistent with a decrease in fixed trade costs. Investigating scale elasticities more in depth, I find that they do not depend on product-specific characteristics. On the other hand, country-specific institutional variables, such as the importer’s level of corruption, play a role: exporting to the most corrupted country in the sample entails half the gain from additional trade volume than exporting to the least corrupted one.