DOI
10.1111/obes.12283
Abstract
Recent work on the effects of currency unions (CUs) on trade stresses the importance of using many countries and years in order to obtain reliable estimates. However, for large samples, computational issues associated with the three-way (exporter-time, importer-time, and country-pair) fixed effects currently recommended in the gravity literature have heretofore limited the choice of estimator, leaving an important methodological gap. To address this gap, we introduce an iterative Poisson Pseudo-Maximum Likelihood (PPML) estimation procedure that facilitates the inclusion of these fixed effects for large data sets and also allows for correlated errors across countries and time. When applied to a comprehensive sample with more than 200 countries trading over 65 years, these innovations flip the conclusions of an otherwise rigorously-specified linear model. Most importantly, our estimates for both the overall CU effect and the Euro effect specifically are economically small and statistically insignificant. We also document that linear and PPML estimates of the Euro effect increasingly diverge as the sample size grows.
Document Type
Post-print Article
Publication Date
2019
Publisher Statement
Copyright © 2019 Wiley Subscription Services, Inc. Article first published online: November 2018.
DOI: 10.1111/obes.12283.
The definitive version is available at:https://onlinelibrary-wiley-com.newman.richmond.edu/doi/full/10.1111/obes.12283.
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Full Citation:
Larch, Mario, Joschka Wanner, Yoto V. Yotov and Thomas Zylkin. "Currency Unions Trade: A PPML Re-Assessment with High-Dimensional Fixed Effects." Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics 81, no. 3 (June 2019): 487–510. https://doi.org/10.1111/obes.12283.
Recommended Citation
Larch, Mario, Joschka Wanner, Yoto V. Yotov and Thomas Zylkin. "Currency Unions Trade: A PPML Re-Assessment with High-Dimensional Fixed Effects." Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics 81, no. 3 (June 2019): 487–510. https://doi.org/10.1111/obes.12283.