E&F Talk Alejandro Riono Londono (City): Child Mortality and the Unexpected Effect of Deep Trade Agreements

The department for Economcis & Finance is pleased to welcome Alejandro Riono Londono from City University London. External guests are requested to register by email to Sven.Fischer@brunel.ac.uk

Wed 23/11 at 13:00-14:00 in LH311 (Lancaster Hotel)

Speaker: Alejandro Riono Londono (City, University of London)

Title: Child Mortality and the Unexpected Effect of Deep Trade Agreements

Abstract:
Child mortality has been declining secularly across the world at the same time that globalisation has advanced and deepened. Are these two trends related? We use a staggered adoption difference-in-differences design based on countries first signature of a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) over the period 1990 to 2019. We find that while earlier episodes of unilateral trade liberalisation have led to a decline in child mortality, the use of broader and more encompassing FTAs has resulted in a reduction in the decline rate of child mortality. Countries that have signed deep FTAs see an increase of 4 deaths per 1,000 live births relative to the counterfactual group based on countries that have yet to sign an FTA, but that do so during our period of analysis. The effect of FTAs on child mortality is highly heterogeneous across countries depending on when the timing of introduction. We examine how the effect varies across children age, FTA characteristics and explore some potential mechanisms that explain the impact.