Joseph Francois

The Role of Goods-Trade Networks for Services-Trade Volume

Abstract In this paper, we address the role of countries’ goods-trade networks for their services-trade volume. The paper employs a large cross section of bilateral trade data on aggregate cross-border goods and services sales and illustrates that the depth and overlap of two countries’ services networks induce a positive direct impact on their services-trade volume. The evidence takes into account that goods trade flows and networks are potentially endogenous so that the estimated direct effects support a causal interpretation. We find that the magnitude of the multilateral goods-trade network effect on the bilateral services-trade volume is much larger than that of bilateral goods-trade volume.

The methane footprint of nations: Evidence from global panel data

We develop a unique global dataset on methane inventories derived from production, final production, and consumption for 1997 - 2011. Anthropogenic emissions are quantitatively important for global warming and have increased about 25% from 1997 - 2011. We analyze the drivers of methane emissions per capita, both economy-wide and across sectors, paying attention to the form of the relation between emissions and growth. There is relative decoupling between methane and growth, and the relationship is non-linear. The effect of economic growth on emissions is likely to worsen when moving from lower to middle levels of development, and only improves as countries reach high levels of income. There is substantial heterogeneity in this relationship at a sectoral level, and sectoral transformation accompanying economic growth also leads to increased emissions. Together, relative decoupling and sectoral diversity challenge the design and implementation of environmental instruments to mitigate methane emissions. Methane also poses challenges to the overall management of greenhouse gas levels.