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We examine if and how deeper economic integration with high‐income nations impacts industrial performance. We exploit Poland's accession to the EU in 2004 as a source of variation in the degree of market integration with Germany. Using data on Polish manufacturing firms in the period 1995–2013, we find that EU accession was followed by significant within‐firm growth in output and productivity, notably in industries in which Germany was more specialized at the moment of accession. Increased flows of German investment to these sectors played an important role in shaping these effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses municipal‐level data from South Africa for the period 1996–2011 to estimate the medium to long‐run effects of trade liberalisation on local labour markets. It finds that local labour markets that were more exposed to tariff cuts tended to experience slower growth in employment and income per capita than less exposed regions. The longer‐term effects of trade liberalisation on regional earnings are stronger than the medium‐term effects and tend to be more pronounced among municipalities that included the former homelands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large number of epidemiological studies have shown that consumption of fruits, vegetables, and beverages rich in (poly)phenols promote numerous health benefits from cardiovascular to neurological diseases. Evidence on (poly)phenols has been applied mainly to flavonoids, yet the role of phenolic acids has been largely overlooked. Such phenolics present in food combine with those resulting from gut microbiota catabolism of flavonoids and chlorogenic acids and those produced by endogenous pathways, resulting in large concentrations of low molecular weight phenolic metabolites in human circulation. Independently of the origin, in human intervention studies using diets rich in (poly)phenols, a total of 137 low molecular weight phenolic metabolites have been detected and quantified in human circulation with largely unknown biological function. In this review, we will pinpoint two main aspects of the low molecular weight phenolic metabolites: (i) the microbiota responsible for their generation, and (ii) the analysis (quali‐ and quantitative) in human circulation and their respective pharmacokinetics. In doing so, we aim to drive scientific advances regarding the ubiquitous roles of low molecular weight phenolic metabolites using physiologically relevant concentrations and under (patho)physiologically relevant conditions in humans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]