TRADE INTEGRATION IN THE 20TH-CENTURY - WHAT DOES BELGIAN HISTORY TELL US

This paper studies globalization, protection and the impact of regiona l trading blocs in the twentieth century. The authors take the perspec tive of a small open core country in Europe. Using a gravity approach, it can be shown that trade integration in Europe followed a U-shaped pattern during the last hundred years. Moreover, the similarity betwee n the gold standard and the current period is striking. Finally, evide nce is found of a strong EC effect, in particular among EC6 countries.