Welcome
I am an economist at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy and the CAU Kiel. I am also associated with the Economics Department at the University of Oslo. Previously, I worked for the Macroeconomics Group at Statistics Norway. My research interests include topics in international trade, international investment, migration, and economic networks and I am the head of the Research Center for Trade Policy at the Kiel Institute.
Contact Details
- Visiting address: Kiel Institut für Weltwirtschaft, Kiellinie 66, 24105 Kiel
- Postal address: Kiel Institut for Weltwirtschaft, Düsternbrooker Weg 120, 24105 Kiel
- Email inga.heiland at ifw-kiel.de
CV
Research in progress
Global Risk Sharing Through Trade in Goods and Assets: Theory and Evidence
I develop a general equilibrium trade model, with risk-averse investors and international capital flows, to show that the correlation pattern of demand shocks across countries constitutes a motive for goods trade that persists even if financial markets are complete. I estimate the risk-augmented gravity equation implied by the model and find support for the prediction that, conditional on trade costs and market size, exporters sell smaller quantities to countries whose shocks contribute more to aggregate volatility. A counterfactual analysis shows that the risk-diversification motive accounts for 7.5% of global trade. Country-level exports would grow by -19% to +9% if all diversification opportunities were eliminated, entailing welfare losses in the range of .3% to 16%.
[CEPR Discussion Paper No. 14230] [Latest version]
Reject&Resubmit Journal of International Economics.
Trade From Space: Shipping Networks and The Global Implications of Local Shocks, with A. Moxnes, K. H. Ulltveit-Moe, and Y. Zi
This paper examines the structure of the shipping network and its implications on global trade and welfare. Using novel data on the movements of container ships, we calculate optimal travel routes. We then estimate the impact of a shock to the network on global trade by means of a natural experiment: the 2016 Panama Canal expansion. Trade between country pairs using the canal increased by 9-10% after the expansion. While the building costs were borne by Panama alone, a model-based quantification shows that the welfare gains were shared by many countries, due to the network structure of shipping. [VoxEU][CEPR Discussion Paper No. 14193][Latest version]
Complex Europe: Quantifying the Cost of Disintegration, with G. Felbermayr and J. Groeschl
[VoxEU][CEPR Discussion Paper 15200, 2020][Latest version]
R&R Journal of International Economics.
This paper updates the results presented in Undoing Europe in a New Quantitative Trade Model
[ifo Working Paper No. 250, 2018.]
Frictions to Intranational Investment, with J. Hinz
Markups and Startups in Ownership Networks
Publications in academic journals
Heterogeneous Workers, Trade, and Migration, with W. Kohler
European Economic Review, Volume 144-104077(2022). [Link][Data and code][CESifo Working Paper No. 7355, 2018]
Export Market Risk and the Role of State Credit Guarantees, with E. Yalcin
International Economics and Economic Policy, 25–72(2021). [CESifo Working Paper No. 5176, 2015]
Where is the Value Added? Trade Liberalization and Production Networks, with R. Aichele Journal of International Economics, 115, 2018, 130-144. [Preprint][Online appendix] [Data and code]
TTIP and Intra-European Trade: Boon or Bane?, with R. Aichele and G. Felbermayr
Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik / Journal of Economics and Statistics, 236(6), 2016, 639–664. [ifo Working Paper No. 220, 2016]
Books & Chapters
Cumulative COVID-19 restrictions and the global maritime network, with K.H. Ulltveit-Moe
in Baldwin, R. E. and S. J. Evenett (eds), Revitalising Multilateralism: Pragmatic Ideas for the New WTO Director-General, a VoxEU.org eBook, CEPR Press, 2020. [Link]
An unintended crisis in sea transportation due to COVID-19 restrictions, with K.H. Ulltveit-Moe
in Baldwin, R. E. and S. J. Evenett (eds), COVID-19 and Trade Policy: Why Turning Inward Won’t Work, a VoxEU.org eBook, CEPR Press, 2020. [Link to eBook] [VoxEU] Media coverage: [Finansavisen.no]
Five Essays on International Trade, Factor Flows, and the Gains from Globalization
ifo Beiträge zur Wirtschaftsforschung 74, ifo Institute, 2017. [PDF]
