Bringing Together What Belonged Together. The Case of Divided Cities in Europe
This paper investigates whether the spatial concentration of economic activity in Europe has long-standing historical roots by leveraging a unique quasi-natural experiment: the removal of physical border barriers in cities that were historically unified, subsequently divided, and eventually reconnected. Schengen expansion led to a significant re-concentration of economic activity around pre-division city centers, reflected in increases in firm establishments and nighttime lights. This effect is driven by the restoration of cross-border commuter access, with effects declining sharply with distance from the historical center.
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! Local Economic Winners and Losers of Border Closures
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Schengen countries temporarily reintroduced internal border controls, reversing a decades-long trend of European integration. While existing research has focused mainly on national-level effects of border closures, localized economic consequences remain underexplored. This paper leverages the disruption of cross-border mobility as a natural experiment to study the short-run economic impacts of border closures on European municipalities. Using monthly nighttime lights data, we find that border closures reduced economic activity in border municipalities by approximately 2% relative to interior municipalities.
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.