I have been awarded by the European Research Council an Advanced Research Grant of 1,817,096 Euro (Grant No. 834253), which will fund a five-year (2019-2024) research agenda on “Trade Agreements and Supply Chains” (TRASC).

This agenda is motivated by two major trends in international trade. The first is the fragmentation of production processes across countries: advances in information and communication technology and falling trade barriers have allowed firms to retain in their domestic economies only a subset of production stages, leading to a surge of trade in intermediate goods and the emergence of global value chains (GVCs). The second trend is the proliferation of regional trade agreements (RTAs), which have risen in number and have become “deeper,” encompassing many provisions that go beyond traditional trade policy. RTAs have contributed to the creation of regional supply chains (e.g. “Factory Europe”, “Factory North America”), shaping firms’ sourcing decisions through preferential tariffs and rules of origin.

The broad goal of my agenda is to develop new theoretical models and use rich new data to address novel and timely questions about the RTAs-supply chains nexus, emphasizing the key role played by firms and the importance of understanding the interplay between economics, law, and politics. I study the impact of RTAs and protectionist measures on GVCs, breaking from the literature on global sourcing, which neglects the role of trade policy. I also examine how large corporations with international supply chains can shape the content and political support for trade agreements, as well as protectionist measures, breaking from a vast literature in political economy of trade, which mostly neglects the role of firms.

To carry out this ambutious research agenda, I have hired a team of doctoral and postdoctoral researchers. The grant will also fund workshops and conferences related to the project.

The first conference on "Trade Agreements and Supply Chains" financed by my ERC grant took place on October 29-30, 2020.

Projects related to my ERC grant

“Trade Protection Along Supply Chains” (with Chad Bown, Aksel Erbahar, and Lorenzo Trimarchi), CEPR Discussion Paper 15648 and CESifo Working Paper 8812. Featured in columns on VoxEU and Bloomberg and a blog of LSE US Centre.

“Lobbying for Globalization” (with Michael Blanga-Gubbay and Mathieu Parenti). Previously circulated as “Globalization For Sale.” CEPR Discussion Paper 14597. Featured in a column on VoxEU and on ProMarket. Revise and Resubmit, Economic Journal.

“Multinational Ownership and Trade Participation” (with Glenn Magerman, Fabrizio Leone, and Catherine Thomas). Preliminary version.

“Lobbying on Deep Trade Policies” (with Michael Blanga-Gubbay, In Song Kim, and Mathieu Parenti). Featured in a column on VoxEU and in a CEPR e-book.

“The Boundaries of Multinational Corporations: The Role of Intangibles” (with Laura Alfaro, Fariha Kamal, Zachary Kroff, and Natalia Ramondo).

“The Gravity of Intermediate Goods” (with Afrola Plaku and Glenn Magerman). Review of Industrial Organization 57 (2020), 223–243 (special issue on global value chains).

“Trade Agreements and the Relationship between Global and Domestic Supply Chains” (with Emmanuel Dhyne, Fabrizio Leone, Glenn Magerman, and Catherine Thomas).

“Does the EU Suffer from a Democratic Deficit? Evidence from Trade Policy” (with Florin Cucu, Federico Gallina, and Mathieu Parenti).

“Lobbying and Counter-Lobbying on Trade Protection” (with Aksel Erbahar, Elisa Navarra, and Lorenzo Trimarchi).

“The Impact of Brexit on Multinationals’ Supplier Networks” (with Swathi Dhingra, Federico Gallina, Keith Head, and Thierry Mayer).