IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehl/lserod/130102.html

Digital trade, data protection and the EU adequacy club

Author

Listed:
  • Ferracane, Martina F.
  • Hoekman, Bernard
  • van der Marel, Erik
  • Santi, Filippo

Abstract

Between 2000 and 2020, the EU granted 14 so‐called adequacy decisions, permitting EU citizens' personal data to flow freely between the EU and the respective trading partners, including among the countries accorded adequacy. Most adequacy decisions are unilateral, complementing the more commonly observed and analysed mutual recognition arrangements for technical regulations. Using structural gravity to assess the relationship between EU adequacy decisions and digital trade, and applying different approaches to define digital trade, we find that adequacy increases bilateral digital trade between the EU and the adequate countries by 7–9% compared to non‐digital trade. We also provide evidence of a ‘club effect,’ with digital trade increasing between countries that have been granted adequacy, but only to the extent that the USA is part of the club. Using synthetic control methods, we show that the magnitude of the club effect varies across countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Ferracane, Martina F. & Hoekman, Bernard & van der Marel, Erik & Santi, Filippo, 2026. "Digital trade, data protection and the EU adequacy club," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 130102, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:130102
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://researchonline.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/130102/
    File Function: Open access version.
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • D18 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Protection
    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations
    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • L88 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Government Policy
    • O38 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Government Policy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:130102. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: LSERO Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.