This paper estimates price-marginal cost mark-ups for Canadian manufacturing industries during the 1970s in order to assess the impact of import competition on domestic market power. The results are mixed. Based on the analysis, there is no consistent evidence that imports had a beneficial impact on competition in the Canadian market during that period. One possible explanation for this finding...

We use theory and empirics to examine the effect of environmental regulations on trade flows. A simple model demonstrates how unobserved heterogeneity, endogeneity, and aggregation issues bias standard measurements of this relationship. A reduced-form estimate of the model, using data on U.S. regulations and trade with Canada and Mexico for 130 manufacturing industries from 1977 to 1986, indica...

We investigate the 2008–2009 trade collapse using microdata from a small open economy, Belgium. Belgian exports and imports mostly fell because of smaller quantities sold and unit prices charged rather than fewer firms, trading partners, and products being involved in trade. Our difference-in-difference results point to a fall in the demand for tradables as the main driver of the collapse. Fina...

Restricting Russian imports is an important instrument in Allies' sanction toolbox. Rather than arbitrarily choosing the set of targeted imported products and level import tariff increases (as typically done literature), we follow recent contributions on ‘optimal sanction’ strategies. We apply a workhorse computable general equilibrium (CGE) model, GTAP, way that enables us to endogenise scope ...

Globalization has led to huge increases in import volumes. Since imports fluctuate heavily over time, they are difficult forecast and reliable leading indicators needed. Our paper introduces the first indicator growth, Import Climate. While surveys an often-used source for indicators, these data typically do not include information about expected demand of firms households. Therefore, our appro...