Borderless Europe Boosts Trade, Lifts Peripheral Economies
The Schengen Agreement in Europe aims to make it easier for goods, services, and people to move across borders. A study shows that Schengen has increased trade by about 2.81%, on top of the EU's trade effects. This is like reducing tariffs by 0.46 to 1.02 percentage points. Services benefit more than goods, especially in peripheral countries. Other EU integration factors have a bigger impact on trade than Schengen.