Immigration and the export decision to the home country

This paper analyzes the effect of immigrants' networks on the decision of individual firms to starting exporting to the immigrants' home country. Existing evidence on the trade-creating effect of immigrants show a robust effect, however at the national or regional level. Using French exports at the firm-level to 61 countries, I find that increasing the number of foreign immigrants in the region by 10 % increases the probability that a firm starts exporting to the immigrants' home country by 1.2%. More, the effect of immigrants is enhanced when immigrants are older or more educated. The effect of immigrants also varies among origin countries.export decision ; networks ; export market ; immigration

EU Enlargement and the Internal Geography of Countries

This paper focuses on the relation between trade openness and the location of economicactivity in a country. The problematic lies in the context of the EU enlargement process and ofits impact on the location of economic activity inside each of the accessing countries. We develop a new economic geography model based on the original Krugman (1991) model, and show that trade liberalization will foster agglomeration of economic activity in the location that has the lowest-cost access to foreign markets. Our results thus differ from Krugman and Livas's (1996) conclusions. We expect the CEECs' economies to shift economic activity towards EU markets. We provide empirical evidence of this result focusing on the post-1991 Romanian urban system.economic integration; urban concentration; agglomeration; CEECs

The Cohesion vs Growth Tradeoff - Evidence from EU Regions (1980-2000)

This paper provides an empirical investigation of the cohesion versus growth tradeoff on European regions at a fine geographical disaggregation level. We use data on gdp per capita at the NUTS3 level for 1980-2000 to estimate the influence of income dispersion within NUTS1 on their economic growth. We analyze the existence of the tradeoff using Redding and Venables’(2004) approach. From a simple new economic geography model in which we add a technological externality in order to allow for local growth, we derive an estimable equation linking the level of factor prices in a region to the level of inequalities inside that region, as well as the region’s access to markets. Our results show a positive relation between the gdp per capita growth rate of a region and the change in the level of inequalities inside the region. Finally, an increase in market potential, as expected, has an unambiguous positive impact on local growth.

Regulatory policy and the location of bio-pharmaceutical FDI in Europe

This paper examines the relationship bewteen cross-country differences in drug price regulation and the location of biopharmaceutical Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Europe. We use a theoretically-grounded location-choice model and data on 294 investments initiated in 27 European countries between 2002 and 2006 to test the hypothesis that biopharmaceutical companies are less likely to locate new investments in countries with more stringent price regulation.pharmaceutical industry ; location choices ; price regulations ; discrete choice model

New Economic Geography meets Comecon: Regional Wages and Industry Location in Central Europe

We analyze the internal spatial wage and employment structures of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia, using regional data for 1996-2000. A new economic geography model predicts wage gradients and specialization patterns that are smoothly related to regions' relative market access. As an alternative, we formulate a "Comecon hypothesis", according to which wages and sectoral location are not systematically related to market access except for discrete concentrations in capital regions. Our estimations confirm the ongoing relevance of the Comecon hypothesis: compared to pre-2004 EU members, Central European countries' average wages and service employment were still discretely higher in capital regions. Our results point towards an increase in relative wages and employment shares of Central Europe's provincial regions, favoring particularly those that are proximate to the large markets of incumbent EU members.regional wages; industry location; transition economies; Central Europe; new economic geography

Local Export spillovers in France

This paper investigates the presence of local export spillovers on both the extensive (the decision to start exporting) and the intensive (the export volume) margins of trade, using data on French individual export flows, at the product-level and by destination country, between 1998 and 2003. We investigate whether the individual decision to start exporting and exported volume are influenced by the presence of nearby product and/or destination specific exporters, using a gravity-type equation estimated at the firm-level. Spillovers are considered at a fine geographical level corresponding to employment areas (348 in France). We control for the new economic geography-type selection of firms into agglomerated areas, and for the local price effects of firms agglomeration.Firm-level export data; Destination specific spillovers; Agglomeration

Immigration and the export decision to the home country

This paper analyzes the effect of immigrants' networks on the decision of individual firms to starting exporting to the immigrants' home country. Existing evidence on the trade-creating effect of immigrants show a robust effect, however at the national or regional level. Using French exports at the firm-level to 61 countries, I find that increasing the number of foreign immigrants in the region by 10 % increases the probability that a firm starts exporting to the immigrants' home country by 1.2%. More, the effect of immigrants is enhanced when immigrants are older or more educated. The effect of immigrants also varies among origin countries.Cet article étudie le rôle des réseaux d'immigrants sur la probabilité des firmes de commencer à exporter vers le pays d'origine des immigrants. Des résultats existants montrent un effet robuste de l'immigration sur le commerce, toutefois au niveau national ou régional. Cette étude se place au niveau individuel des firmes, en utilisant les données d'exportations françaises vers 61 pays de destination pour la période 1986-1992. Les résultats soulignent qu'une augmentation de 10% du nombre d'immigrants dans un département français augmente la probabilité qu'une firme commence à exporter vers le pays d'origine des immigrants de 1.2%. Cet effet est amplifié avec l'âge et le niveau d'éducation des immigrants et varie en fonction des pays

Enlargement and the EU Periphery: The Impact of Changing Market Potential

We study the impact of changing relative market access in an enlarged EU on the economies of incumbent Objective 1 regions. First, we track the impact of external opening on internal spatial configurations in a three-region economic geography model. External opening gives rise to potentially offsetting economic forces, but for most parameter configurations it is found to raise the locational attractiveness of the region that is close to the external market. Then, we explore the relation between market access and economic activity empirically, using data for European regions, and we simulate the impact of EU enlargement on Objective 1 regions. Our predicted market-access induced gains in regional GDP and manufacturing employment are up to seven times larger in regions proximate to the new accession countries than in “interior” EU regions. We also find that a future Balkans enlargement could be particularly effective in reducing economic inequalities among the EU periphery, due to the positive impact on relative market access of Greek regions.New economic geography, Market potential, EU enlargement, Objective 1 regions

Defense mechanisms

None provided

Local export spillovers in France

This paper investigates the presence of local export spillovers on both the extensive (the decision to start exporting) and the intensive (the export volume) margins of trade, using data on French individual export flows, at the product-level and by destination country, between 1998 and 2003. We investigate whether the individual decision to start exporting and exported volume are influenced by the presence of nearby product and/or destination specific exporters, using a gravity-type equation estimated at the firm-level. Spillovers are considered at a fine geographical level corresponding to employment areas (348 in France). We control for the new economic geography-type selection of firms into agglomerated areas, and for the local price effects of firms agglomeration. Results show evidence of the presence of export spillovers on the export decision but not on the exported volume. We interpret this as a first evidence of export spillovers acting through the fixed rather than the variable cost. Spillovers on the decision to start exporting are stronger when specific, by product and destination, and are not significant when considered on all products or on all products-all destinations. Moreover, export spillovers exhibit a spatial decay within France: the effect of other exporting firms on the export decision is stronger within employment areas and declines with distance.firm-level export data ; destination specific spillovers ; agglomeration