This Working Paper examines the evolution of France's carbon footprint from 2000 to 2014, with a particular focus on the role of international trade. During this period, France's territorial emissions decreased by 18%, yet its consumption-based footprint declined by only 5%. This modest reduction reflects an increase in emissions embedded in imports, which grew from 45% to 54% of the total. Employing a novel structural decomposition analysis, the authors disentangle the contributions of scale, composition, and technique effects from a consumption perspective. The paper's approach advances traditional methods by explicitly distinguishing between domestic and foreign influences and by separately analyzing trade openness and the geographic reallocation of trade flows. The results underscore the dominance of the technique effect in reducing emissions (-28%), driven primarily by efficiency improvements abroad. However, the geographic composition effect led to a substantial increase in emissions (+18%), especially due to shifts toward more carbon-intensive trading partners prior to 2008. This pattern - characterized by a growing reliance on foreign improvements for emission reductions - likely foreshadows developments in other developed economies as domestic decarbonization advances. It highlights the need for greater coordination between trade and climate policies.  Pierre Cotterlaz, Christophe Gouel

Trump’s second term shows early signs of a transactional and confrontational foreign policy, using economic tools to pressure allies and foes, increasing global uncertainty. Contributors to a recent CEPR e-book "The Economic Consequences of The Second Trump Administration: A Preliminary Assessment" doubt his goals - cutting the trade deficit, boosting industry, and creating high-paying U.S. jobbs - could be achieved.  Thierry Mayer (Sciences Po et CEPII), Giovanni Peri (University of California) and Thibaut Mommeja (CEPR) shared their insights. Their presentations are available for download. 

Since January 2025, we have been publishing our new series LE Graphique - THE Chart. Twice a month, we feature a blog post with an insightful chart to unravel the latest in global economic trends. 15 publications are available on our blog so far.