Service deregulation, competition and the performance of French and Italian firms

We use firm-level data for France and Italy to explore the impact of service regulation reform implemented in the two countries on the mark-up and eventually on the performance of firms between the second half of the 1990s and 2007. We find that the relation between entry barriers and productivity is negative and is crucially intermediated through the firm’s mark up. If both countries adopted OECD’s best practices in terms of entry barriers, their TFP level would increase by 3% for Italy and 3.5% for France

Competitiveness and the export performance of the euro area

Chapter 1 provides an overview and assessment of the price competitiveness and export performance of the euro area and the larger euro area countries, as well as an evaluation of how standard equations have been able to explain actual export developments. Chapter 2 carries out a constant market share analysis for the euro area and thereby sheds light on the reasons for movements in aggregate export market shares by looking at the sectoral and geographical composition of euro area exports. Chapter 3 looks at the evolution of the technological competitiveness of the euro area and major competitors – proxied by patenting activity and R&D expenditure – and analyses some structural indicators of competitiveness using survey data. Chapter 4 then looks at the impact of FDI on competitiveness and export performance. Finally, Chapter 5 summarises the main findings of the report, but also critically evaluates their importance and implications.

Service Deregulation, Competition and the Performance of French and Italian Firms

Banque de France, Document de Travail N. 34

Productivity Trends from 1890 to 2012 in Advanced Countries

Parallel Sessions A: Total Factor Productivity, Potential Outpupt, and Economic Growt

Replication data for: Production Factor Returns: The Role of Factor Utilization

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Service deregulation, competition and the performance of French and Italian firms

This article reports estimates of the impact of service regulation reform on the productivity of French and Italian firms in retail, transports and professional services over the period 1998–2007. We implement a two-stage least squares estimation: the first-stage instruments mark-ups, a financial measure of rents, with barriers to entry and the second stage estimates the impact of instrumented mark-ups on total factor productivity (TFP), a real measure of firm efficiency. We find that entry barriers lower firm productivity by raising mark-ups and rents. These estimates imply that, if French and Italian regulators had adopted the OECD best practices in terms of entry barriers, firms in these sectors would have increased their TFP level by five percentage points. We do not find any robust evidence of a non-linear relation between mark-up and productivity