On the design of effective sanctions: the case of bans on exports to Russia
Journal: Economic Policy
Year: 2023

Abstract We build on Baqaee and Farhi (2019, 2021) and derive a theoretically grounded criterion that allows targeting bans on exports to a sanctioned country at the level of ∼5,000 six-digit HS products. The criterion implies that the costs to the sanctioned country are highly convex in the market share of the sanctioning parties. Hence, there are large benefits from coordinating export bans among a broad coalition of countries. Applying our results to Russia reveals that sanctions imposed by t