What Is the Impact of World Expositions on the Trade Volume in Exports?

Abstract: Using the Structural Gravity model, this thesis analyzes the impact of post-war world expositions and specialized expositions on the trade volume in exports. The study runs LSDV regressions on three types of panel data for 183 countries between 1950 to 2017, with a total of 792,720 observations. The results show that hosting any exposition has a larger effect on trade than outdated models would suggest, with positive export increases for the host nation depending on the timeframe. The estimates are highly significant and robust, though endogeneity issues likely persist. These findings suggest that policymakers should prioritize hosting world expositions over other mega-events if they are seeking to boost the trade volume in exports.