International Trade Integration: A Disaggregated Approach

45 Pages Posted: 18 Feb 2009

See all articles by Natalie Chen

Natalie Chen

University of Warwick - Department of Economics; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

Dennis Novy

University of Warwick - Department of Economics; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR); Centre for Economic Performance (CEP); CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute)

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Date Written: December 2008

Abstract

This paper investigates the sources and size of trade barriers at the industry level. We derive a micro-founded measure of industry-specific bilateral trade integration that has an in-built control for time-varying multilateral resistance. This trade integration measure is consistent with a broad range of recent trade models including the Anderson and van Wincoop (2003) framework, the Ricardian model by Eaton and Kortum (2002) and heterogeneous firms models. We use it to explore trade barriers for manufacturing industries in European Union countries between 1999 and 2003. We find a large degree of trade cost heterogeneity across industries. The most important trade barriers are transportation costs and policy factors such as Technical Barriers to Trade. Trade integration is generally lower for countries that opted out of the Euro or did not abolish border controls in accordance with the Schengen Agreement. Reductions in trade barriers explain about one-half of the growth in trade over the period 1999-2003 and are therefore a major driving force of the EU Single Market.

Keywords: Disaggregation, European Union, Gravity, Industries, Multilateral Resistance, Trade Costs, Trade Integration

JEL Classification: F10, F15

Suggested Citation

Chen, Natalie and Novy, Dennis, International Trade Integration: A Disaggregated Approach (December 2008). CEPR Discussion Paper No. DP7103, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1345629

Natalie Chen (Contact Author)

University of Warwick - Department of Economics ( email )

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United Kingdom
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Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

London
United Kingdom

Dennis Novy

University of Warwick - Department of Economics ( email )

Coventry CV4 7AL
United Kingdom
+44 (0) 2476150046 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/staff/faculty/novy/

Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) ( email )

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United Kingdom

Centre for Economic Performance (CEP) ( email )

Houghton Street
London WC2A 2AE
United Kingdom

CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute)

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Munich, DE-81679
Germany

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