Bring Together What Belongs Together. The Case of Divided Cities in Europe

Do spatial concentrations of economic activities have deep historical roots in Europe? This paper explores a unique quasi-natural experiment of opening borders within cities that were historically a single urban entity and were divided due to border shifts following major historical conflicts. After inter-city borders were opened, I find that local economic activities, measured by remotely sensed nightlight, became more concentrated close to the pre-division city centers. This raises an important question, what type of border opening is more important in spurring agglomeration, the free movement of goods or of people?

Losing with Borders, Winning with Centers. The Case of European Integration

This paper studies two major stages of European integration, the expansion of the European Union (EU) in 2004 and the Schengen Area in 2008, and their impacts on economic performance in sub- regions of Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. Using European regional data at the NUTS3 level and disaggregated synthetic control method, I construct counterfactuals for sub-regions of CEE countries. This approach allows me to assess regional treatment effects (RTEs) and to study the heterogeneous effects of European integration.

Europe, we have a problem! The Economic Cost of Border Controls during COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic brought unprecedented challenges, including the temporary suspension of the principle of free movement of people within the Schengen Area. I evaluate the potential economic cost of controlling European borders during the pandemic. I use unconventional data sources such as NASA’s Black Marble Nighttime Lights (NTL) to provide insights into the economic impact of border restrictions on European municipalities. The results suggest that the impact of travel restrictions vary across cities; economic activities tend to decrease more in cross-border cities than in interior cities, especially in small border cities.