Pub Date : 2025-11-26DOI: 10.1016/j.jinteco.2025.104188
Dario Caldara , Sarah Conlisk , Matteo Iacoviello , Maddie Penn
Do geopolitical risks raise or lower inflation? Using a unique dataset containing historical macroeconomic data since 1900 for 44 economies, we find that geopolitical risks foreshadow high inflation, with the intensity of this effect differing across countries and historical periods. The rise in inflation is accompanied by lower economic activity; an increase in military spending, public debt, and money growth; supply disruptions; and a decline in international trade. Geopolitical risks are also associated with higher inflation uncertainty and the risk of significant inflation increases. Using a monthly vector autoregression model estimated on global data since the 1970s, we confirm that global geopolitical risks increase inflation, with the inflationary effect of higher commodity prices and currency depreciation more than offsetting the deflationary effects of lower consumer sentiment and tighter financial conditions.
{"title":"Do geopolitical risks raise or lower inflation?","authors":"Dario Caldara , Sarah Conlisk , Matteo Iacoviello , Maddie Penn","doi":"10.1016/j.jinteco.2025.104188","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jinteco.2025.104188","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Do geopolitical risks raise or lower inflation? Using a unique dataset containing historical macroeconomic data since 1900 for 44 economies, we find that geopolitical risks foreshadow high inflation, with the intensity of this effect differing across countries and historical periods. The rise in inflation is accompanied by lower economic activity; an increase in military spending, public debt, and money growth; supply disruptions; and a decline in international trade. Geopolitical risks are also associated with higher inflation uncertainty and the risk of significant inflation increases. Using a monthly vector autoregression model estimated on global data since the 1970s, we confirm that global geopolitical risks increase inflation, with the inflationary effect of higher commodity prices and currency depreciation more than offsetting the deflationary effects of lower consumer sentiment and tighter financial conditions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":16276,"journal":{"name":"Journal of International Economics","volume":"159 ","pages":"Article 104188"},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2025-11-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145615783","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-25DOI: 10.1016/j.jinteco.2025.104198
Carlos Esquivel , Agustin Samano
We study fiscal rules in a sovereign default model with private capital accumulation and long-term debt. Their adoption strengthens public finances and increases long-run income by mitigating two distortions: debt dilution and underinvestment. In the short run, however, the economy experiences a costly transition where consumption and investment drop to finance debt reduction. To study this tradeoff, we calibrate the model to Argentina and evaluate three rules: a debt limit, a deficit limit, and a dual rule combining both. The deficit limit is preferred only when implemented at high debt levels because it features smoother debt reduction but imposes strict discipline in all states. Otherwise, gains are highest under the dual rule that combines the flexibility of debt limits at low levels with the discipline of deficit limits at higher levels. Results are robust to alternative formulations for capital accumulation and stronger in the presence of political myopia.
{"title":"Expansionary fiscal rules under sovereign risk","authors":"Carlos Esquivel , Agustin Samano","doi":"10.1016/j.jinteco.2025.104198","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jinteco.2025.104198","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We study fiscal rules in a sovereign default model with private capital accumulation and long-term debt. Their adoption strengthens public finances and increases long-run income by mitigating two distortions: debt dilution and underinvestment. In the short run, however, the economy experiences a costly transition where consumption and investment drop to finance debt reduction. To study this tradeoff, we calibrate the model to Argentina and evaluate three rules: a debt limit, a deficit limit, and a dual rule combining both. The deficit limit is preferred only when implemented at high debt levels because it features smoother debt reduction but imposes strict discipline in all states. Otherwise, gains are highest under the dual rule that combines the flexibility of debt limits at low levels with the discipline of deficit limits at higher levels. Results are robust to alternative formulations for capital accumulation and stronger in the presence of political myopia.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":16276,"journal":{"name":"Journal of International Economics","volume":"159 ","pages":"Article 104198"},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2025-11-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145615784","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-19DOI: 10.1016/j.jinteco.2025.104197
Alexandra Avdeenko , Maximilian Kaiser , Krisztina Kis-Katos , Leonie Reher
In the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, online intermediaries enabled brands to retain a presence in the Russian market as many global companies—presumably or actually—withdrew due to legal and reputational concerns. This paper examines how sales by intermediaries responded to international sanctions. Using novel data on customer transactions of 95 global brands from 1761 web shops, we show that sales to Russia dropped significantly after the invasion, especially among shops from countries enacting export restrictions. This drop was substantial yet not absolute. Guided by a stylized conceptual framework, we explore which intermediary shops helped sustain sales to Russia, linking their actions to economic incentives and the brand-specific legal and reputational concerns. Overall, we demonstrate how market structure shapes shops’ compliance with sanctions and highlight how economic incentives undermine compliance.
{"title":"Sanctions, sales, and stigma: Intermediary online firms’ market role in sustaining trade","authors":"Alexandra Avdeenko , Maximilian Kaiser , Krisztina Kis-Katos , Leonie Reher","doi":"10.1016/j.jinteco.2025.104197","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jinteco.2025.104197","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, online intermediaries enabled brands to retain a presence in the Russian market as many global companies—presumably or actually—withdrew due to legal and reputational concerns. This paper examines how sales by intermediaries responded to international sanctions. Using novel data on customer transactions of 95 global brands from 1761 web shops, we show that sales to Russia dropped significantly after the invasion, especially among shops from countries enacting export restrictions. This drop was substantial yet not absolute. Guided by a stylized conceptual framework, we explore which intermediary shops helped sustain sales to Russia, linking their actions to economic incentives and the brand-specific legal and reputational concerns. Overall, we demonstrate how market structure shapes shops’ compliance with sanctions and highlight how economic incentives undermine compliance.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":16276,"journal":{"name":"Journal of International Economics","volume":"159 ","pages":"Article 104197"},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2025-11-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145615835","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-18DOI: 10.1016/j.jinteco.2025.104189
Xiangjun Ma , John McLaren , Karim Chalak
We study the effects of local partisanship in a model of electoral competition. Voters care about policy, but they also care about the identity of the party in power, with most states biassed toward one party or the other (i.e., ‘red’ or ‘blue’). We show that electoral competition leads to maximization of welfare with an extra weight on citizens of the ‘swing state:’ the one that is not biassed toward either party. We show empirically that the US tariff structure is biassed toward swing-state industries, such that a voter living in a non-swing state is treated as being worth 82% as much as a voter in a swing state. This represents a policy bias orders of magnitude greater than the bias found in studies of protection for sale.
{"title":"A swing-state theorem, with evidence","authors":"Xiangjun Ma , John McLaren , Karim Chalak","doi":"10.1016/j.jinteco.2025.104189","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jinteco.2025.104189","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We study the effects of local partisanship in a model of electoral competition. Voters care about policy, but they also care about the identity of the party in power, with most states biassed toward one party or the other (i.e., ‘red’ or ‘blue’). We show that electoral competition leads to maximization of welfare with an extra weight on citizens of the ‘swing state:’ the one that is not biassed toward either party. We show empirically that the US tariff structure is biassed toward swing-state industries, such that a voter living in a non-swing state is treated as being worth 82% as much as a voter in a swing state. This represents a policy bias orders of magnitude greater than the bias found in studies of protection for sale.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":16276,"journal":{"name":"Journal of International Economics","volume":"159 ","pages":"Article 104189"},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2025-11-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145570178","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-10DOI: 10.1016/j.jinteco.2025.104185
Simon J. Bolz , Fabrice Naumann , Philipp M. Richter
This paper examines how offshoring shapes emissions leakage and global emissions in response to unilateral environmental policy. We use a general equilibrium offshoring model with heterogeneous firms, based on standard modeling assumptions, where firms allocate labor between production tasks and emissions abatement. We find that global emissions respond non-monotonically to a unilateral emissions tax increase: for small cross-country tax differentials, emissions fall; but as the difference widens, leakage exceeds 100%, raising global emissions due to a global technique effect. The cleanest domestic firms start offshoring and incumbent offshoring firms become dirtier under declining effective foreign taxes. We isolate the offshoring margin – one underexplored channel of leakage – and contrast our findings with comparable models of trade in final goods: the mode of globalization matters. Complementing the unilateral reform with a border carbon adjustment (BCA) prevents emissions leakage but may raise inequality between countries.
{"title":"Unilateral environmental policy and offshoring","authors":"Simon J. Bolz , Fabrice Naumann , Philipp M. Richter","doi":"10.1016/j.jinteco.2025.104185","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jinteco.2025.104185","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper examines how offshoring shapes emissions leakage and global emissions in response to unilateral environmental policy. We use a general equilibrium offshoring model with heterogeneous firms, based on standard modeling assumptions, where firms allocate labor between production tasks and emissions abatement. We find that global emissions respond non-monotonically to a unilateral emissions tax increase: for small cross-country tax differentials, emissions fall; but as the difference widens, leakage exceeds 100%, raising global emissions due to a global technique effect. The cleanest domestic firms start offshoring and incumbent offshoring firms become dirtier under declining effective foreign taxes. We isolate the offshoring margin – one underexplored channel of leakage – and contrast our findings with comparable models of trade in final goods: the mode of globalization matters. Complementing the unilateral reform with a border carbon adjustment (BCA) prevents emissions leakage but may raise inequality between countries.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":16276,"journal":{"name":"Journal of International Economics","volume":"159 ","pages":"Article 104185"},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2025-11-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145570140","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-05DOI: 10.1016/j.jinteco.2025.104184
François de Soyres , Simon Fuchs , Illenin O. Kondo , Helene Maghin
We develop a framework to assess how economic shocks affect local labor markets and worker welfare, with a focus on city-level economic diversity. Using detailed worker flow data across cities, sectors, and occupations, we construct theory-consistent welfare measures. Our approach combines a dynamic discrete choice model with a dual representation that captures both direct effects and the insurance value of local economic diversity. Applied to French labor markets, we find that diversification dampens the effect of negative shocks: both job-to-job moves and net inflows decline less in diverse cities than in concentrated ones. Overall, we document sizable welfare insurance gains from local economic diversity.
{"title":"Economic diversity and the resilience of cities","authors":"François de Soyres , Simon Fuchs , Illenin O. Kondo , Helene Maghin","doi":"10.1016/j.jinteco.2025.104184","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jinteco.2025.104184","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>We develop a framework to assess how economic shocks affect local labor markets and worker welfare, with a focus on city-level economic diversity. Using detailed worker flow data across cities, sectors, and occupations, we construct theory-consistent welfare measures. Our approach combines a dynamic discrete choice model with a dual representation that captures both direct effects and the insurance value of local economic diversity. Applied to French labor markets, we find that diversification dampens the effect of negative shocks: both job-to-job moves and net inflows decline less in diverse cities than in concentrated ones. Overall, we document sizable welfare insurance gains from local economic diversity.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":16276,"journal":{"name":"Journal of International Economics","volume":"158 ","pages":"Article 104184"},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2025-11-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145473561","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper characterizes equilibrium properties of a broad class of economic models that allow multiple heterogeneous agents to interact in heterogeneous ways across several markets. Our key contribution is a new theorem that provides sufficient conditions for uniqueness, attractivity, and stability of solutions of non-linear equation systems. To illustrate the applicability of our theorem, we characterize the general equilibrium properties of an extended version of the “universal gravity” framework, which comprises a host of seminal trade models. Specifically, we provide conditions for uniqueness, stability, and attractivity when, in line with real-world observations, (i) supply elasticities are allowed to vary by country, or (ii) multiple sectors are introduced. We also provide a practical toolkit for future research on how our theorem can be applied to establish uniqueness, stability, and attractivity of equilibria in a broad set of economic models.
{"title":"Single and attractive: Uniqueness and stability of economic equilibria under monotonicity assumptions","authors":"Patrizio Bifulco , Jochen Glück , Oliver Krebs , Bohdan Kukharskyy","doi":"10.1016/j.jinteco.2025.104187","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jinteco.2025.104187","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper characterizes equilibrium properties of a broad class of economic models that allow multiple heterogeneous agents to interact in heterogeneous ways across several markets. Our key contribution is a new theorem that provides sufficient conditions for uniqueness, attractivity, and stability of solutions of non-linear equation systems. To illustrate the applicability of our theorem, we characterize the general equilibrium properties of an extended version of the “universal gravity” framework, which comprises a host of seminal trade models. Specifically, we provide conditions for uniqueness, stability, and attractivity when, in line with real-world observations, (i) supply elasticities are allowed to vary by country, or (ii) multiple sectors are introduced. We also provide a practical toolkit for future research on how our theorem can be applied to establish uniqueness, stability, and attractivity of equilibria in a broad set of economic models.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":16276,"journal":{"name":"Journal of International Economics","volume":"159 ","pages":"Article 104187"},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2025-11-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145486067","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-11-04DOI: 10.1016/j.jinteco.2025.104186
Lu Han
Exporters frequently change their set of destination markets. This paper proposes a new approach to identifying the underlying drivers of changes in exporters’ market decisions over time. The approach exploits information on price and quantity changes in firms’ continuing markets to disentangle the micro shocks that drive firms’ market changes. Applying the method to customs data from China (2000–2006) and the UK (2010–2016), I find consistent results showing that most firm- and firm-product-level market changes are driven by demand-related shocks, with a nontrivial proportion of these changes being correlated across markets.
{"title":"What drives exporters’ market dynamics? A new framework for disentangling micro shocks","authors":"Lu Han","doi":"10.1016/j.jinteco.2025.104186","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jinteco.2025.104186","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Exporters frequently change their set of destination markets. This paper proposes a new approach to identifying the underlying drivers of changes in exporters’ market decisions over time. The approach exploits information on price and quantity changes in firms’ continuing markets to disentangle the micro shocks that drive firms’ market changes. Applying the method to customs data from China (2000–2006) and the UK (2010–2016), I find consistent results showing that most firm- and firm-product-level market changes are driven by demand-related shocks, with a nontrivial proportion of these changes being correlated across markets.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":16276,"journal":{"name":"Journal of International Economics","volume":"159 ","pages":"Article 104186"},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2025-11-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145519389","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-10-28DOI: 10.1016/j.jinteco.2025.104181
Nicolás E. Magud, Samuel Pienknagura
Using individual-level surveys for 42 countries (advanced economies and emerging markets and developing economies) spanning about 40 years, we show that cohorts with higher exposure to past inflationary episodes systematically express higher concerns over inflation. This link is stronger for women and poorer individuals; when exposure occurs in the latter part of the individual’s working-age (lifecycle theory); and it diminishes with individuals’ trust in institutions. Country characteristics also affect the link between past inflation exposure and inflation concerns—it is amplified by macroeconomic instability, and reduced with institutions’ quality, aggregate income, and democratic development. Higher contemporaneous inflation affects inflation concerns but does not increase the sensitivity of inflation concerns to past experience. In turn, inflation concerns have macroeconomic implications, as inflation expectations are more responsive to inflationary shocks in countries where concerns about inflation are more entrenched. This could potentially affect central banks’ ability to anchor inflation expectations.
{"title":"Inflated concerns: Exposure to past inflationary episodes and preferences for price stability","authors":"Nicolás E. Magud, Samuel Pienknagura","doi":"10.1016/j.jinteco.2025.104181","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jinteco.2025.104181","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Using individual-level surveys for 42 countries (advanced economies and emerging markets and developing economies) spanning about 40 years, we show that cohorts with higher exposure to past inflationary episodes systematically express higher concerns over inflation. This link is stronger for women and poorer individuals; when exposure occurs in the latter part of the individual’s working-age (lifecycle theory); and it diminishes with individuals’ trust in institutions. Country characteristics also affect the link between past inflation exposure and inflation concerns—it is amplified by macroeconomic instability, and reduced with institutions’ quality, aggregate income, and democratic development. Higher contemporaneous inflation affects inflation concerns but does not increase the sensitivity of inflation concerns to past experience. In turn, inflation concerns have macroeconomic implications, as inflation expectations are more responsive to inflationary shocks in countries where concerns about inflation are more entrenched. This could potentially affect central banks’ ability to anchor inflation expectations.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":16276,"journal":{"name":"Journal of International Economics","volume":"158 ","pages":"Article 104181"},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2025-10-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145424722","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-10-27DOI: 10.1016/j.jinteco.2025.104183
Seunghoon Na , Yinxi Xie
This paper studies exchange rate dynamics and excess currency returns by incorporating bounded rationality into a small open-economy New Keynesian model. Decision-makers have limited foresight, planning only up to a finite horizon and approximating continuation values with coarse value functions learned from past experiences. This behavior generates an initial underreaction, followed by an overreaction in beliefs, leading to dynamic overshooting of exchange rate forecast errors. Moreover, the coexistence of forward- and backward-looking components in expectation formation breaks the forecast-horizon invariance implied from rational expectations. Our model thus provides a micro-foundation for understanding time- and forecast-horizon variability in uncovered interest parity (UIP) puzzles, and its predictions align closely with empirical estimates.
{"title":"Expectations and the UIP puzzles when foresight is limited","authors":"Seunghoon Na , Yinxi Xie","doi":"10.1016/j.jinteco.2025.104183","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jinteco.2025.104183","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper studies exchange rate dynamics and excess currency returns by incorporating bounded rationality into a small open-economy New Keynesian model. Decision-makers have limited foresight, planning only up to a finite horizon and approximating continuation values with coarse value functions learned from past experiences. This behavior generates an initial underreaction, followed by an overreaction in beliefs, leading to dynamic overshooting of exchange rate forecast errors. Moreover, the coexistence of forward- and backward-looking components in expectation formation breaks the forecast-horizon invariance implied from rational expectations. Our model thus provides a micro-foundation for understanding time- and forecast-horizon variability in uncovered interest parity (UIP) puzzles, and its predictions align closely with empirical estimates.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":16276,"journal":{"name":"Journal of International Economics","volume":"158 ","pages":"Article 104183"},"PeriodicalIF":4.0,"publicationDate":"2025-10-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145474202","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}