10 research idea notes tagged “trade”. Read them as Markdown, JSON or an Atom feed.
Foreign direct investment appears on 198 recent papers, but national security on 11 and investment screening on a handful. Since 2018, most rich countries have widened the review of foreign takeovers on security grounds. Which deals do the reviews stop, and what does screening do to investment flows and target firms?
Papers in the last 30 days — national security: 2 · foreign direct investment: 14
Tariffs and the trade war appear on 184 recent papers, mostly in the economics journals, but only 47 carry a price, pass-through, incidence or inflation keyword, and "tariff pass-through" on 3. The 2025 tariff rounds were larger and broader than those of 2018. Did foreign exporters cut prices this time, or did consumers pay again?
Papers in the last 30 days — tariffs: 3 · trade war: 2
Sanctions appear on 85 recent papers, with 23 in the last quarter against about 20 per quarter before, and 35 of them carry a Russia, enforcement or effectiveness keyword. Trade data show exports from Europe to Central Asia and the Caucasus surging after 2022. How much of the sanctioned trade simply took a detour, and what stops it?
Papers in the last 30 days — economic sanctions: 1 · financial sanctions: 1
Populism appears on 26 recent papers, mostly in the economics journals, with 7 in the last quarter against about 5 per quarter before. Only 2 of them carry a trade, globalization, tariff or automation keyword, although the "China shock" is the best-known economic explanation of populist votes. Do the newer shocks (inflation, immigration, AI) now matter more?
Papers in the last 30 days — populism: 2 · right-wing populism: 1
Environmental degradation is one of the fastest-rising keywords in the economics journals, and the Belt and Road Initiative is a large topic in finance and economics. But the pollution haven hypothesis appears on only 14 recent papers. Did Chinese investment abroad move dirty production to countries with weaker rules?
Papers in the last 30 days — Belt and Road Initiative: 1
Geopolitical risk is one of the most frequent keywords in the finance and economics journals, and supply chain resilience is a major topic in operations research, but the two rarely meet in OR journals. Customs data can show whether trade re-routes through third countries when geopolitical risk rises, and at what cost.
Papers in the last 30 days — geopolitical risk: 17 · supply chain resilience: 18
Deforestation appears on 28 recent papers and the EU Deforestation Regulation on 4, with 10 deforestation papers in the last quarter against about 8 per quarter before. The rule requires proof that coffee, cocoa, soy, palm oil and other goods were not grown on deforested land. Will it change where forests fall, or only where goods are sold?
Papers in the last 30 days — deforestation: 3 · EU Deforestation Regulation: 1
Critical minerals rose from almost nothing to one of the fastest-growing keywords across the tracked journals this year. Export controls on gallium, germanium, graphite and some rare earths since 2023 are natural experiments. Do they raise costs for clean-energy producers, speed up substitution and new supply, or both?
Papers in the last 30 days — critical minerals: 2 · rare earth elements: 3
Carbon leakage appears on 28 recent papers and the EU's carbon border adjustment on a handful, with the topic fading (5 papers in the last quarter against about 8 per quarter before) just as the mechanism starts charging in 2026. Which exporters pay, do they clean up or divert trade, and does leakage actually fall?
Papers in the last 30 days — carbon leakage: 1 · CBAM: 2
Outsourcing, offshoring and digital trade appear on 104 recent papers, but only one of them carries an AI, remote-work or online-labour keyword. If language models make call centres, coding and back-office work cheaper to automate than to offshore, the countries that built service exports on cheap labour face a new competitor. Is service offshoring already slowing?
Papers in the last 30 days — digital trade: 2 · outsourcing: 1
Scholar4AI. (2026). Research ideas tagged “trade”. Journal Research Rankings. Retrieved October 26, 2026, from https://scholar4ai.com/ideas/tags/trade
@misc{scholar4ai-ideas-tags-trade,
author = {{Scholar4AI}},
title = {Research ideas tagged “trade”},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {\url{https://scholar4ai.com/ideas/tags/trade}},
urldate = {2026-10-26},
note = {Journal Research Rankings; data from OpenAlex (CC0); licensed CC BY-NC 4.0}
}