Bringing Together What Belonged Together. The Case of Divided Cities in Europe
Does the spatial concentration of economic activity in Europe have deep historical roots? This paper exploits a unique quasi-natural experiment—the removal of physical border barriers in cities historically unified, later divided, and subsequently reconnected. Following the Schengen expansion, border removal led to a significant re-concentration of economic activity around pre-division city centers, as measured by the number of firm establishments and nighttime lights. The restoration of cross-border commuter access drove this effect, and agglomeration effects diminished sharply with distance from historical centers.
Who Gains from a Borderless Europe? The Uneven Geography of European Integration
This paper studies the winners and losers of European integration by analyzing its impact on economic performance across sub-regions in Central and Eastern Europe. Using a disaggregated synthetic control method, I estimate the region-specific treatment effects of EU enlargement 2004 and Schengen 2008. The results show a core–periphery dynamic. While interior regions benefited from EU enlargement, border regions experienced losses, leading to an average economic disadvantage of about 2% relative to interior regions.
Europe, we have a problem! The Economic Cost of Border Controls during Pandemic
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.
Russia’s Wartime Economy. Measuring Regional Inequalities from Outer Space
This study examines the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 as a natural experiment to assess the impact of disrupted international market access on regional economic inequalities in Russia. Using nighttime lights data as a proxy for economic activity, we compare cities near the EU and Ukrainian borders, where market access was restricted, to cities in southern Russia, which benefited from reoriented trade networks. Our findings reveal that western border cities experienced economic decline due to reduced trade and industrial disruptions, while southern cities showed relative resilience, likely driven by increased trade with non-Western markets.