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Cosimo BEVERELLI

Ricercatore t.d. art. 24 c. 3 lett. B
Dipartimento di Economia "Marco Biagi"

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Pubblicazioni

2024 - Institutions, trade, and development: identifying the impact of country-specific characteristics on international trade [Articolo su rivista]
Beverelli, Cosimo; Keck, Alexander; Larch, Mario; Yotov, Yoto V.
abstract

We quantify the impact of country-specific institutions on international trade and development in a structural gravity framework. The econometric analysis offers robust evidence that stronger institutions promote trade. A counterfactual analysis reveals that the changes in institutional quality in the poor countries in our sample between 1996 and 2006 have had, via their impact on imports from rich countries, significant and heterogeneous welfare effects, varying between −2% and 5%. Our approach is readily applicable to identifying the impact of any country-specific variable on international trade in the structural gravity framework.

2022 - Pull factors for migration: The impact of migrant integration policies [Articolo su rivista]
Beverelli, C.
abstract

This paper investigates the impact of migrant integration policies set by destination countries on migration from 202 origins to 27 destinations during the period 2010–2018. Employing a structural gravity methodology which features international and domestic (i.e., intra-national) migration flows, it shows that migrant integration policies, on average, positively affect cross-border migration relative to domestic migration. Moving from the 25th percentile to the median of the variable summarizing migrant integration policies increases cross-border relative to domestic migration by one third. Such impact is largely driven by policies on family reunion and permanent residence.

2022 - Reducing tariff evasion: The role of trade facilitation [Articolo su rivista]
Beverelli, C.; Ticku, R.
abstract

Can simplifying customs procedures reduce tariff evasion? We measure tariff evasion as the mis-representation of import values in response to increasing tariffs. In a dataset covering 121 countries and the whole set of HS6 product categories in 2012, 2015, and 2017, we show that simplifying border procedures, that is trade facilitation, reduces tariff evasion. Holding tariff rate constant at its mean, improving a country's overall trade facilitation performance from the 25th percentile to the median reduces tariff evasion by almost 20%. The moderating effect is especially due to improving the pre-shipment legal certainty of customs procedures. Among the potential mechanisms, improving trade facilitation performance is effective in reducing tariff evasion due to under-reporting of import prices, as well as in countries with weaker control of corruption. The results suggest that countries can gradually implement trade facilitation reforms to cost-effectively minimize tariff evasion.

2020 - International trade, investment, and the Sustainable Development Goals : World Trade Forum [Curatela]
Beverelli, C; Kurtz, J; Raess, D
abstract

In September 2015, world leaders adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) represent a distinctive approach to development that moves away from a narrow perspective on economic development to an integrative agenda that simultaneously pursues ecological, social and economic goals. Trade and foreign investment are important economic vectors through which many of these goals can be achieved. Much depends, however, on whether and how SDGs are incorporated in international trade and investment agreements, and in private or public sector initiatives. Policymakers are also confronted with the interdependence of the SDGs which raises difficult trade-offs between various Goals. The contributions in this book explore the penetration and trade-offs of the SDGs, drawing on a multi-disciplinary approach incorporating insights from economists, lawyers and political scientists. The book offers a valuable guide for scholars and policy makers in identifying and evaluating the complex challenges related to sustainable development.”

2019 - Domestic value chains as stepping stones to global value chain integration [Articolo su rivista]
Beverelli, C.; Stolzenburg, V.; Koopman, R. B.; Neumueller, S.
abstract

Identifying the determinants of global value chain (GVC) integration is essential to understand the past expansion and current slowdown in GVCs. In this paper, we study the role of domestic value chains (DVCs) for GVC integration. In the presence of industry-specific fixed costs of fragmenting production and of switching across input suppliers, DVCs can either be stepping stones or stumbling blocks for subsequent GVC entry. Focusing on backward linkages, that is, the sourcing of intermediates, we provide robust empirical evidence in favour of the stepping-stone hypothesis. In our benchmark specification, a one standard deviation increase in DVC integration raises subsequent GVC integration by about 0.4%. To identify the mechanisms at work, we exploit two dimensions of industry-level heterogeneity: product differentiation (a proxy of fragmentation costs) and relationship specificity (a proxy of the costs of switching between suppliers). We find that DVC integration is less conducive to GVC integration in industries that are characterised by relatively high switching costs and relatively low fragmentation costs.

2019 - Migration deflection: The role of Preferential Trade Agreements [Articolo su rivista]
Beverelli, C.; Orefice, G.
abstract

We derive and estimate a migration gravity equation featuring bilateral and third country migration and offshoring costs to investigate whether there is migration deflection across origin countries. Such deflection occurs if migration from an origin country to a destination country is negatively affected by reductions in the costs of migrating from third origin countries to the destination country. Using information on migration- and offshoring-related provisions contained in Preferential Trade Agreements to proxy for migration and offshoring costs, we find robust empirical evidence in favor of migration deflection across economically similar origin countries with some degree of cultural affinity, as measured by sharing a common language. We discuss the policy relevance of this result both from the perspective of destination countries and from the perspective of origin countries.

2019 - Trade policy substitution: theory and evidence [Articolo su rivista]
Beverelli, C.; Boffa, M.; Keck, A.
abstract

With the help of a political economy model, we show that the extent of ‘trade policy substitution’—namely, substitution of tariffs with non-tariff measures (NTMs)—depends on the cost differential between domestic and foreign firms in complying with product standards. The model suggests the prevalence of trade policy substitution in developed economies, where the costs of compliance are relatively low. We test and validate this prediction using a database on NTMs that identifies actual trade restrictions. We further examine the possible protectionist use of trade policy substitution exploiting information on the end of the Multifibre Arrangement (MFA) and on WTO notifications.

2017 - Services trade policy and manufacturing productivity: The role of institutions [Articolo su rivista]
Beverelli, C.; Fiorini, M.; Hoekman, B.
abstract

We study the effect of services trade restrictions on manufacturing productivity for a broad cross-section of countries at different stages of economic development. Decreasing services trade restrictiveness has a positive impact on the manufacturing sectors that use services as intermediate inputs in production. We identify a critical role of institutions in importing countries in shaping this effect. Countries with high institutional quality benefit the most from lower services trade restrictions in terms of increased productivity in downstream industries. We show that the conditioning effect of institutions operates through services trade that involves foreign establishment (investment), as opposed to cross-border arms-length trade in services.

2015 - Export Diversification Effects of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement [Articolo su rivista]
Beverelli, C.; Neumueller, S.; Teh, R.
abstract

We estimate the effects of trade facilitation on export diversification, as measured by two extensive margins: the number of products exported by destination and the number of export destinations served by product. To address causality we use only exports of new products, or exports to new destinations. We find a positive impact of trade facilitation on the extensive margins of trade. The results are robust to alternative definitions of extensive margins, different sets of controls, and various estimation methods. Simulation results suggest substantial extensive margin gains from trade facilitation reform in Sub-Saharan Africa and in Latin America and the Caribbean.

2011 - Dutch disease revisited : oil discoveries and movements of the real exchange rate when manufacturing is resource-intensive [Articolo su rivista]
Beverelli, C.; Dell'Erba, S.; Rocha, N.
abstract

We study how natural resource booms affect the real exchange rate in a situation where there are input–output linkages between the manufacturing sector and the natural resource sector. An increase in revenues from natural resources could de-industrialize an economy by raising the real exchange rate, rendering the manufacturing sector less competitive. This tendency towards de-industrialization has been called “Dutch disease”. We build a theoretical model showing that a country experiencing discoveries of natural resources, such as oil, is not necessarily bound to experience the Dutch disease. The appreciation of the real exchange rate can be escaped if patterns of specialization shift towards the manufacturing industries that use oil more intensively. In the second part of the paper, we test the model and find support for the claim that Dutch disease effect associated with discoveries of natural resources (namely oil) are dampened in countries that specialize in resource-intensive manufacturing industries.

2011 - Outsourcing and Competition Policy [Articolo su rivista]
Beverelli, C.; Mahlstein, K.
abstract

We analyze optimal competition policy by a Competition Agency (CA) in a model with two countries, North and South, were a final good is produced by Northern oligopolistic firms using an input that can either be produced within the firm (vertical integration) or outsourced to Southern oligopolistic producers with lower labor costs (outsourcing). In the case where the final good is only consumed in the North, a CA in the South would optimally appropriate outsourcing rents through restrictions on the degree of competition among domestic firms. If the final good is consumed in both countries, we find that optimal competition policy in the South is marginally affected by the share of Southern consumption, leaving relatively important incentives to engage in rent-shifting. For a high enough share of Southern consumption, however, the interaction between the Northern and Southern CA is shown to be of the Prisoner's Dilemma type, whereby the Nash equilibrium is Pareto-suboptimal and mutual cooperation on competition policy is globally desirable. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.