Borders within Europe

• Authors: Jaume Ventura.
• BSE Working Paper: 112256 | January 21
• Keywords: European integration , border effect , regional trade
• JEL codes: D71, F15, F55, H77, O57
• European integration
• border effect
• regional trade

Are country borders still an impediment to trade flows within Europe? Using a microlevel survey with 3 million annual shipments of goods, we construct a matrix of bilateral trade for 269 European regions. Take two similar region pairs, one containing regions in different countries and the other containing regions in the same country. The market share of the origin region in the destination region for the international pair is 17.5 percent that of the intranational pair. Across industries, this estimate ranges from 12.3 to 38.9 percent. For post-1910 borders, this estimate is 28.8 percent. The implication is clear: Europe is far from having a single market.