While multilateral trade negotiations have stagnated and tensions between major players have surged, bilateral and regional agreements seem to have run away with the trade agenda. There are over 300 agreements today, up from 50 in 1990. Most importantly, many of these agreements have extended their reach well beyond tariffs, aiming to achieve integration beyond trade, or ‘deep’ integration. This column introduces a new eBook from CEPR and the World Bank that focuses on the determinants of deep trade agreements, how they affect trade and non-trade outcomes, and how they might shape trade relations in a post-COVID-19 world.
Sustainable investment incorporating environmental, social, and governance concerns is increasingly used as an emissions-reducing policy. However, little is known about its effectiveness. This column examines the relationship between ESG metrics and emission growth across 20 countries and finds little evidence to suggest that higher ESG metrics are associated with reduced emission growth.
Research has shown that multinational enterprises located in the US account for roughly 90% of US exports of goods and for over 90% of exports of selected services. While these estimates show that multinationals clearly dominate trading activity of gross exports, they overstate the role of multinationals in US exports since non-multinationals are an important part of the production supply chain and make significant contributions to the value embodied in these exports. This column uses experimental Trade in Value Added statistics estimated from extended supply-use tables for the US for 2005 and 2012 to show that both multinational and non-multinational firms contribute significant amounts of content embodied in US exports.
Peter Neary, former president of both the European Economic Association and the Royal Economic Society, passed away on 16 June 2021. This column pays tribute to one of the profession’s European leaders, both in terms of the depth and range of his research and his role as a wizard of organisational development.
The Covid-19 crisis has had a largely negative effect on firms, harming corporate profitability and leverage around the world. This column presents findings from the recent OECD Economic Outlook, highlighting how these negative effects have in fact varied across firms. In maintaining the buffer against corporate bankruptcies, the authors identify three clear policy challenges: debt overhang, financial instability, and the rise of ‘zombie’ firms.
Other Recent Columns:
- Limits to private climate change mitigation
- Remembering Peter Neary (1950-2021)
- US firms' market power has declined due to import competition
- Covid-19 and the corporate sector: Where we stand
- Reducing the compliance costs of regulation
- Pollution reductions during lockdowns can teach us how to build back better
- How the pandemic could save us
- Worker representation, worker welfare, and firm performance
- State capacity and development clusters
- The health externalities of downsizing
- Corporate borrowing during crises
- Swedish school lunch reform, nutrition, and lifetime income
- Asymmetric information in the foreign exchange market
- A triumph of economics… but a lot of challenges ahead
- Fiscal support for a sustainable recovery in the euro area
- Tax expenditures: The hidden side of government spending
- Migration and risk sharing in currency unions
- Returning to the office will be hard
- From gross exports to value-added exports to income exports
- Banking on experience
Most Read
Vox eBooks
Vox Talks
Events
-
24 - 24 June 2021 / France / Université Paris Nanterre, France
-
25 - 25 June 2021 / Online /
-
28 - 28 June 2021 / Online /
-
29 - 30 June 2021 / Online / Plato Partnership
-
30 - 30 June 2021 / Online /
