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A Dissection of Trading Capital: Trade in the Aftermath of the Fall of the Iron Curtain

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  • Beestermöller, Matthias
  • Rauch, Ferdinand

Abstract

We study trade in Europe after the fall of the Iron Curtain, and show that the countries of the former Austro-Hungarian monarchy trade significantly more with one another after 1989 than predicted by a standard gravity model. Cultural trading capital, established under Habsburg rule and maintained in the period of the Iron Curtain, seems to have survived over four decades of separation and gives an initial boost to trade. This surplus trade disappeared rapidly after 1990 as countries rearranged themselves with the new geopolitical circumstances. We document the rate of decay of these forces.

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  • Beestermöller, Matthias & Rauch, Ferdinand, 2018. "A Dissection of Trading Capital: Trade in the Aftermath of the Fall of the Iron Curtain," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 78(2), pages 358-393, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:jechis:v:78:y:2018:i:02:p:358-393_00
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    Cited by:

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    2. Santamaria, Marta & Ventura, Jaume & Yesilbayraktar, Ugur, 2021. "Borders within Europe," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 560, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    3. Chilosi, David & Nikolic, Stefan, 2021. "Vanishing borders: ethnicity and trade costs at the origin of the Yugoslav market," SocArXiv fsmch, Center for Open Science.
    4. Beestermöller, Matthias & Rauch, Ferdinand, 2018. "A Dissection of Trading Capital: Trade in the Aftermath of the Fall of the Iron Curtain," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 78(2), pages 358-393, June.
    5. Lucie Coufalová & Fanny H. Dellinger & Peter Huber & Štěpán Mikula, 2024. "Borders and Population Growth: Evidence from a Century of Border Regime Changes on the Austrian-Czech Border," MUNI ECON Working Papers 2024-03, Masaryk University.
    6. Marius Klein & Ferdinand Rauch, 2023. "Market Access and the Arrow of Time," CESifo Working Paper Series 10279, CESifo.
    7. Chiappini, Raphaël & Jégourel, Yves, 2021. "“The buck stops with the executives”: Assessing the impact of workforce composition and cultural distance on French firms’ exports," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 45-57.
    8. Santamaría, Marta & Ventura, Jaume & Yesilbayraktar, Ugur, 2021. "Borders within Europe," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1355, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.

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