Conferences, workshops and lectures

Trade sanctions are a common instrument of diplomatic retaliation. To guide current and future policy, we ask: What is the most cost-efficient way to impose trade sanctions against Russia? To answer this question, we build a quantitative model of international trade with input-output connections. Sanctioning countries simultaneously choose import tariffs to maximise their income and to minimise Russia's income, with different weights placed on these objectives. We find, first, that for countries with a small willingness to pay for sanctions against Russia, the most cost-efficient sanction is a uniform, about 20 percent tariff against all Russian products. Second, if countries are willing to pay at least 0.7 $ for each 1 $ drop in Russian welfare, an embargo on Russia's mining and energy products – with tariffs above 50 percent on other products – is the most cost-efficient policy. Finally, if countries target politically relevant sectors, an embargo against Russia's mining and energy sector is the cost-efficient policy even when there is a small willingness to pay for sanctions.

Financial markets can support the transition to a low-carbon economy by redirecting funds from highly emissive to clean investments. We study whether European stock markets incorporate carbon prices in company valuations and to what degree they discriminate between firms with different carbon intensities. Using a novel dataset of stock prices and carbon intensities of 338 European publicly traded companies between 2013 and 2021, we find a strongly statistically significant relationship between weekly carbon price changes and stock returns. Crucially, this relationship depends on firms' carbon intensity: the higher the carbon costs a firm faces, the poorer its stock performance during the periods of carbon price increases. Emissions that firms cover with free allowances however do not impact this relationship, illustrating how both carbon pricing and disclosures are needed for financial markets to foster climate change mitigation. The relationship we identify can provide an incentive for firms to decarbonise. We argue in favour of more ambitious carbon pricing policies, as this would strengthen the stock-market incentive channel while causing only limited financial stability risk for stocks.

Das FIW – Kompetenzzentrum "Forschungsschwerpunkt Internationale Wirtschaft" kündigt seine 15. Forschungskonferenz "International Economics" an und bittet um die Einreichung von (vollständigen) Arbeitspapieren, die auf der Konferenz präsentiert werden sollen. Das Hauptziel der Konferenz ist es, Wirtschaftswissenschafterinnen und -wissenschaftern, die auf dem Gebiet der "Internationalen Wirtschaft" arbeiten, eine Plattform zu bieten, um aktuelle Forschungsergebnisse zu präsentieren. Beiträge von Doktorandinnen und Doktoranden, jungen Fakultätsmitgliedern und jungen Forscherinnen und Forschern in ähnlichen Positionen sind besonders willkommen, da die Konferenz junge Wirtschaftswissenschafterinnen und -wissenschaftern unterstützen und ermutigen soll, indem sie ihnen die Möglichkeit gibt, ihre Arbeit sowohl anderen jungen Wirtschaftswissenschafterinnen und -wissenschaftern als auch erfahrenen älteren Forscherinnen und Forschern vorzustellen. Die Konferenz soll auch Forscherinnen und Forschern und politische Entscheidungsträgerinnen und -trägern zusammenbringen, um ein Forum für Diskussionen darüber zu bieten, wie empirische Erkenntnisse effektiver in die aktuelle Wirtschaftspolitik einfließen können.