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Pages
Welcome, مرحباً, bienvenue
About me
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Posts
Why Economics? Why Trade?
Economics and me
My dedication to learning about and contributing to economic knowledge originates in a larger passion for dynamic social systems. I grew up in a space where cultural constructs, social norms, political overreach, economic struggles, and religious beliefs seemed to constantly collapse into one another. The identities that I carry put me at odds with many of these otherwise impercitible forces. And the constant tensions and hesitations of a country that is in perpetual transition emphasized the emphasized the complexity of the systems at play. I was fascinated. I have since never ceased to be.
On reductionist economics. Musings
Production relations, labor markets, trade networks, government policies, agents’ decision patterns are what comes to mind when I hear the word economics. As economics continues to trend away from its original subject matter, and rebrand itself as a a versatile prism able to refract any and all things human, my passion for economics is very much about the good old fashioned economy. Value production relations and the rules that govern them are the core of what my focus is as an economist, and as an economist, the tools that I have inherited from centuries of economic research allow increasingly rigorous conceptually modelling and empirical quantification. The history of economics is indeed one of amazing progress at the service of improved human welfare. It is a tradition that I am proud to belong to and that I strive to participate in.
portfolio
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Portfolio item number 2
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publications
Evaluating The Symmetry of Trade Policy : Evidence From Liberalization Reversals
Is trade policy symmetric? Using a dataset of trade agreements from 1986 to 2016, I identify 126 instances of trade liberalization reversals where standing agreements are revoked and barriers to trade are reintroduced. I study the impact of these reversals on import volumes to reveal whether trade flows responses to positive and negative liberalization shocks are symmetric. Some of weak evidence of positive trade policy asymmetry emerges : trade volumes appear to respond more to favorable shocks. However, the hypothesis of perfect policy symmetry cannot be rejected at credible confidence levels.
Recommended citation: Ait Benasser, Youssef (2020). "Evaluating The Symmetry of Trade Policy: Evidence From Liberalization Reversals" Working Paper.
Measuring Trade Policy Uncertainty and Its Impact on Financial Market Volatility
The weakening multilateral trade policy framework and the pursuit of protectionist agendas have reduced the predictability of trade policy in recent years. This paper investigates the impact of trade policy uncertainty (TPU) on stock market volatility. In doing so, it pro- poses a new forward-looking index to measure public perceptions of TPU. In-sample results reveal that markets do not respond to TPU shocks with increased volatility. Out-of-sample analysis indicates that TPU does not have predictive power for market volatility and that accounting for it in asset allocation decisions does not improve investors’ utility. These results align well with theoretical predictions of behavioral responses to uncertainty. They also significantly deviate from the existing empirical literature on the volatility-impact of other sources of policy uncertainty. I discuss possible reasons that explain this new result.
Recommended citation: Ait Benasser, Youssef. (2021). "Measuring Trade Policy Uncertainty and Its Impact on Financial Market Volatility".
China’s Aid and Trade Diplomacy: A Zero-Sum Game?
China’s active economic diplomacy has revived debates on new mercantilism as a form of government intervention in shaping a globalized world. In this paper, I investigate one of the main grievances against these policies: their ability to divert existing trade relationships, thus creating a zero-sum competition environment. Using data on development aid, official loans, trade and investment deals, and focusing on Africa, I quantify the trade creation and diversion effects of China’s economic diplomacy tools. I find that official finance, and chiefly development aid, positively affects exports to China and third-party countries, especially in the manufacturing sector. A similar effect is observed with trade agreements. Of the considered tools, none displays strong diversion effects. When it comes to international trade, China’s aid and trade diplomacy is not a zero-sum game.
Recommended citation: Ait Benasser, Youssef. (2022). "China’s Aid and Trade Diplomacy: A Zero-Sum Game?".
talks
Talk 1 on Relevant Topic in Your Field
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Conference Proceeding talk 3 on Relevant Topic in Your Field
This is a description of your conference proceedings talk, note the different field in type. You can put anything in this field.