Conference Paper
Trade and Connectiveness between Neighbours across the Strait
No.
ERF30_125
Publisher
ERF
Date
March, 2024
This paper builds a dataset of bilateral trade flows between provinces of a developed and a developing country. This novel dataset combines trade and freight statistics to obtain exports and imports between Spain and Morocco for the period from 2010 to 2018, split into 15 sectors and three transport modes. With the data at hand, a gravity model of trade is estimated using a new two-stage procedure, focusing on the role played by social connectedness, proxied by Facebook connections and migration flows, while controlling for singular geographical, historical, and institutional relations between the two countries. Our results are of special relevance to EU-MENA relations and provide interesting insights for other countries whose colonial ties reversed in hostilities and political differences.
Authors
Fatima El Khatabi
Ph.D. candidate in Economics, Universidad Autónoma de...
Authors
Inmaculada Martinez-Zarzoso
Professor, Universities of Göttingen in Germany and...