Date of Award

8-2024

Degree Type

Report

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Economics and Finance

Committee Chair(s)

Katarzyna A. Bilicka

Committee

Katarzyna A. Bilicka

Committee

Craig Palsson

Committee

Anna Pechenkina

Abstract

Do sanctions actually have an impact on their intended targets? This paper seeks to fill a gap in the existing literature on the effectiveness of sanctions by measuring potential impacts on the trade relationships of targeted states after the imposition of sanctions. To do so, it turns to a comprehensive dataset that combines all trade and sanctions data for each of 229 states, arranged in 23,132 dyads, from 2000 through 2019. It then examines 792 regressions using a hybrid fixed effects difference-in-difference model applied to twelve different types of sanctions, differentiated by the sanctioning state’s membership in certain groups of states, across eight categories of products traded. The paper hypothesizes that there are in fact some negative relationships between the imposition of sanctions and the value of trade in the sanctioned state. Although, it also recognizes that multiple confounding variables will hold it back from determining that the sanctions themselves are the cause for any decrease in trade in sanctioned states. Ultimately, it finds that much of hypothesis is true but also finds more interesting details pertaining to the behavior of trade in certain product categories after the imposition of sanctions.

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