Language effect on the International Trade: Russian language evidence in the post-Soviet context
Description
This repository contains the Stata replication code used in the master's thesis Language Effect on International Trade: Russian Language Evidence in the Post-Soviet Context. The study investigates whether the impact of language on bilateral trade has changed over time and examines the role of the Russian language in the post-Soviet region. The analysis is based on the structural gravity model using bilateral trade data from the CEPII Gravity Database. PPML estimations with high-dimensional fixed effects are employed to evaluate language effects, temporal changes, and robustness across alternative language datasets. The results indicate that the trade-promoting effect of language has weakened over time and that Russian-language ties do not exert a statistically significant independent effect on trade among former Soviet republics once broader historical and institutional links are considered. The repository includes code for data preparation, variable construction, estimation, and robustness analyses.