Publications

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.

A growing body of research uses field and survey experiments to examine ethnic discrimination. Central to these studies is the use of people’s names as a proxy for ethnic origin. However, names signal more than solely ethnic markers. Moreover, their signals might vary across national contexts. Scholars should pre-test the perception of names used in experiments in order to properly interpret their results and reveal the mechanisms underlying discrimination. There is, however, no comprehensive study yet in Europe which thoroughly pre-test the perception of names across countries with profoundly different migration histories.

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.