EU single market · Julian Hinz

Der EU-Binnenmarkt als Schutzschild: Wie Europa den Handelskrieg mit den USA abfedert

Gabriel Felbermayr — Mon, 18 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Die USA haben 2025 umfassende Importzölle eingeführt, die Europa direkt treffen. Die Analyse zeigt: Der EU-Binnenmarkt wirkt als Schutzschild gegen diese externen Schocks. Die Integration der europäischen Güter- und Arbeitsmärkte halbiert die regionale Streuung der Wohlfahrtseffekte und schützt insbesondere die am stärksten exponierten Regionen.

Der durchschnittliche Wohlfahrtsverlust liegt bei rund 0,06 Prozent, während die Standardabweichung über die Regionen von 0,13 auf 0,06 Prozentpunkte sinkt. Der Binnenmarkt funktioniert damit als Risikoteilungsmechanismus, der regionale Ungleichheiten komprimiert — in Zeiten geoökonomischer Spannungen ist seine Vertiefung eine strategische Notwendigkeit.

Tariffs Hit Differently: The Regional Impact of US Tariffs across Europe and the Role of the Single Market

Gabriel Felbermayr — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Changes in labor location under U.S. tariff shocks.

We study how recent U.S. tariffs ripple through European regions and how the EU Single Market cushions these shocks. Using a regionalized inter-country input–output framework with labor mobility, we embed 288 European NUTS2 regions in a global production network and quantify the heterogeneous effects of U.S. import protection.

Our counterfactuals compare outcomes under an integrated versus a fragmented Europe. Integration allows firms and workers to substitute along intra-EU value chains, which substantially lowers both average income losses and the dispersion of outcomes across regions. The results highlight how deep integration shapes the geography of trade policy exposure.

The Brussels Effect 2.0: How the EU Sets Global Standards with Its Trade Policy

Elisabeth Christen — Sat, 01 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The creation of uniform, legally binding norms and standards is an essential basis for the functioning of the EU single market, which at the same time is increasingly spread beyond the EU’s borders through international trade relations. The shaping of global standards and regulations according to EU directives even beyond the EU’s borders represents an important competitive advantage of the EU. The EU also manages to impose rules, regulations and standards only through market mechanisms in third countries without international treaties or agreements. This has in many areas contributed to the “Europeanisation” of important aspects of global trade. In the academic literature, this regulatory influence of the EU is defined as the “Brussels Effect”. The focus of this study is to give a comprehensive overview of the Brussels Effect and to analyse the linkages regarding EU trade policy, outlining to what extent a Brussels Effect can be observed in the network of EU trade agreements. Based on a comprehensive and broad identification of the Brussels Effect, this study aims to quantify the trade effects in terms of the leading role in shaping global standards and regulations for the EU and Austria and to qualitatively identify further areas in which untapped potentials of a “Brussels Effect 2.0” seem possible in the context of EU trade policy.