PARIS, FRANCE, OCTOBER 23-24, 2019

The Euro-Latin Network on Integration and Trade (ELSNIT) is now accepting submissions of papers examining the effects of trade and investment promotion policies along the economic and institutional dimensions. In particular, submitted papers should address questions such as–but not limited to–the following:

Export and Investment Promotion Agencies (EPAs and IPAs)’s Institutional Characteristics and Practices.

How do countries promote exports and investment? What is the role of EPAs and IPAs? How are these agencies organized and what is the volume of the financial and human resources these agencies are endowed with? To what extent agencies’ size and institutional attributes matter? Do agencies target specific sectors or countries? What is the extent of these targeting efforts? Are targeted sectors those already present in the host economy, connected to these sectors, or entirely new? How are these identified? Does targeting make a difference?

Export Promotion Programs.

What programs do EPAs traditionally have to promote exports? Are there recent innovations in the set of programs? What evidence is there available on the market failures these programs seek to address (e.g., information spillovers)? Are they properly designed to do so? Are new technologies used in the implementation of the programs (e.g., artificial intelligence to identify buyers)? Are programs (cost-) effective? Do their impacts vary with firms’, traded goods/services’, or destinations’ attributes? How? What are the channels through which the impacts take place (e.g., extensive margin)? Are impacts conditioned by other policy factors such as preferential trade agreements, trade facilitation policies, or innovation promotion programs? Are their spillovers from participating in export promotion programs?

Investment Promotion Programs.

What programs do IPAs traditionally have to promote FDI? Are there recent innovations either in the set of programs or in their implementation modalities (e.g., use of artificial intelligence to identify leads)? What evidence is there available on the market failures these programs seek to address (e.g., information spillovers)? Are programs (cost-) effective in attracting FDI? Do their impacts vary across groups of firms, sectors, and origin countries? How? Are impacts conditioned by other policy factors such as preferential trade agreements, bilateral investment treaties, double taxation treaties, trade facilitation policies, and free trade zones or export processing zones’ regimes? Are their spillovers from investment promotion-attracted FDI to the local economy? What are the size and the nature of these spillovers? What are the channels through which these spillovers take place (e.g., employee rotation)? What characteristics do effective linkages’ programs have? Are investment promotion and linkages’ programs coordinated? How? Do linkages’ programs effectively foster spillovers? Can these programs help domestic firms internationalize when combined with other public support initiatives such as export and innovation promotion programs? Both theoretical and empirical contributions will be considered, but in all cases priority will be given to papers identifying and shedding light on relevant policy questions such as those outlined above, including case studies of policies followed by national or international organizations, in particular. Furthermore,
submission of papers that, in doing this, explicitly contrast successful and failed cases, comparing countries within a certain a geographical area, is strongly encouraged. Important lessons are expected to be drawn from these contributions for Latin American and Caribbean countries.

The selected papers will be presented along invited contributions at the XVII Annual ELSNIT Conference that will be hosted by the CEPII in Paris, France, on October 23-24, 2019. A recognized expert in the field will comment upon each paper. All the papers and discussions will be circulated as working documents of the network. The authors are free to submit the papers to academic journals, stating that they were presented at the XVII Annual ELSNIT Conference.

Procedures for Submission of Papers
All researchers who are associated with a European or Latin American/Caribbean based academic or research institution are eligible to submit papers. While detailed abstracts will be accepted, there is a strong preference for nearly completed papers. Submission should be accompanied by a statement declaring the institutional affiliation of the authors. The papers should be written in English. To register for the conference and submit a paper, please fill out this FORM and follow the instructions therein.

The deadline for submissions is June 14, 2019. The final selection of papers will be made by June 28, 2019 by the network coordinators –Simon Evenett (University St. Gallen and CEPR), Holger Görg (University of Kiel and Kiel Institute for the World Economy), Bernard Hoekman (EUI and CEPR), Jacint Jordana (IBEI and UPF), Gianmarco Ottaviano (Bocconi University – BAFI CAREFIN and CEPR), Gianluca Santoni (CEPII), and Christian Volpe Martincus (IDB/INT)–. The final versions of the papers must be delivered by September 20, 2019.
The selected authors’ and invited discussants’ travel expenditures (economy class) and per diems to participate at the conference will be reimbursed by the IDB. Detailed guidelines explaining the logistics of the conference will be provided at a later stage. Please circulate this call for papers among your colleagues and other potentially interested parties.

Background Information
The Euro-Latin Study Network on Integration and Trade (ELSNIT) is an initiative of the Inter-American Development Bank to create in Europe a forum on integration and trade issues relevant to Latin America and the Caribbean. The main objectives of the Network are to generate research, studies and debate on these issues, draw on a rich European experience and perspectives and increase interaction between European and Latin American researchers. The annual conference organized in the framework of the
Network focuses on a particular issue each year.
The ELSNIT Network is coordinated by a Steering Committee that currently consists of the Bocconi University, Milan, Italy; Centre d’Etudes Prospectives et d’Informations Internationales (CEPII), Paris, France; the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW), Kiel, Germany; the European University Institute (EUI), Florence, Italy; the Institut Barcelona d’Estudis Internacionals (IBEI), Barcelona, Spain; the University of St. Gallen, St. Gallen, Switzerland; the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR),
London, United Kingdom; and the IDB (INT).