https://hdl.handle.net/10419/120998 Fri, 06 Nov 2026 17:20:27 GMT 2026-11-06T17:20:27Z https://hdl.handle.net/10419/322538 Title: China's manufacturing pollution, environmental regulation and trade Authors: Xie, Dan Abstract: Real manufacturing output increased rapidly in China from 1998 to 2012 while sulfur dioxide (SO2) pollution emissions grew at a much lower rate. To study the reasons for this, I focus on the contributions of environmental policy, trade liberalization, and other factors linked to China's development process. Using China's entry into the World Trade Organization and the 11th Five-Year Plan as policy shocks, the difference-in-differences analyses show that these policies effectively reduced firm-level pollution intensity. The change in pollution is primarily driven by within-sector firm heterogeneities rather than industry structural change toward less polluting sectors. Finally, the counterfactual analysis based on a quantitative model reveals that environmental regulations play a major role in reducing pollution and the implicit pollution tax faced by firms grew substantially over the period. In addition, tariff cuts due to trade liberalization reduce variable costs of trade and allow firms to abate pollution more. Mon, 01 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/10419/322538 2024-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/10419/322537 Title: The global financial cycle and international monetary policy cooperation Authors: Li, Shangshang Abstract: This paper evaluates gains from international monetary policy cooperation between the financial center and periphery countries in a two-country open economy model consistent with global financial cycles. Compared to the non-cooperative Nash equilibrium, the optimal cooperative equilibrium robustly fails to benefit both countries simultaneously. The financial periphery is more likely to gain from cooperation if it raises less foreign currency debt or is relatively small. These results also hold when considering the transitional gains and losses of moving from non-cooperation to cooperation. The uneven distribution of gains from cooperation persists when both countries adopt implementable policy rules with and without cooperation. Nevertheless, both countries gain when transitioning from the Nash to the cooperative implementable rules. Regardless of the financial center's policy, rules responding to the exchange rate dominate over purely inward-looking rules for the financial periphery. Mon, 01 Jan 2024 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/10419/322537 2024-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/10419/295143 Title: How EU membership affects foreign direct investment: Differences between EU15 and CEE countries Authors: Meinhart, Bettina Abstract: This paper examines the impact of membership in the European Union on foreign direct investments (FDI). In contrast to previous studies, the overall effect of EU membership is disaggregated by countries that joined the EU before 2004 (EU15) and those that joined after 2004 (CEE). This disaggregation is motivated by differences between the two groups in terms of their historical background, GDP levels, and motives for FDI. Furthermore, the effects of EU membership are estimated at the country level. Using a structural FDI gravity model and applying recent advances in the gravity estimation literature, it is shown that membership of the EU has a substantial positive impact on both inward and outward FDI stocks. In particular, there is considerable heterogeneity in the impact of EU membership, with EU15 countries experiencing mainly an increase in inward FDI, while CEE countries experience a surge in outward FDI. Sun, 01 Jan 2023 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/10419/295143 2023-01-01T00:00:00Z https://hdl.handle.net/10419/278712 Title: On the heterogenous trade and welfare effects of GATT/WTO membership Authors: Felbermayr, Gabriel; Larch, Mario; Yalçin, Erdal; Yotov, Yoto Abstract: We quantify the partial and general equilibrium effects of GATT/WTO membership on trade and welfare. Using an extensive database covering manufacturing trade for 186 countries over the period 1980-2016, we find that the average impact of GATT/WTO membership on trade among member counties is large, positive, and significant. We contribute to the literature by estimating country-specific estimates and find them to vary widely across the countries in our sample with poorer members benefitting more. Using these estimates, we simulate the general equilibrium effects of GATT/WTO on welfare, which are sizable and heterogeneous across members, and relatively small for non-member countries. We show that countries not experiencing positive trade effects from joining GATT/WTO can still gain in terms of welfare, due to lower import prices and higher export demand. Sat, 01 Jan 2022 00:00:00 GMT https://hdl.handle.net/10419/278712 2022-01-01T00:00:00Z