Two-sided heterogeneity and trade

This paper develops a multi-country model of international trade that provides a simple microfoundation for buyer-seller relationships in trade. We explore a rich dataset that identifies buyers and sellers in trade and establish a set of basic facts that guide the development of the theoretical model. We use predictions of the model to examine the role of buyer heterogeneity in a market for firm-level adjustments to trade shocks, as well as to quantitatively evaluate how firms’ marginal costs depend on access to suppliers in foreign markets

Globalization: a woman’s best friend? Exporters andthe gender wage gap

While the impact of globalization on income inequality has received a lot of attention, little is known about its effect on the gender wage gap (GWG). This study argues that there is a systematic difference in the GWG between exporting firms and non-exporters. By the virtue of being exposed to higher competition, exporters require greater commitment and flexibility from their employees. If commitment is not easily observable and women are perceived as less committed workers than men, exporters will statistically discriminate against female employees and will exhibit a higher GWG than non-exporters. We test this hypothesis using matched employer-employee data from the Norwegian manufacturing sector from 1996 to 2010. Our identification strategy relies on an exogenous shock, namely, the legislative changes that increased the length of the parental leave that is available only to fathers. We argue that these changes have narrowed the perceived commitment gap between the genders and show that the initially higher GWG observed in exporting firms relative to nonexporters has gone down after the changes took place

Strapped for cash: the role of financial constraints for innovating firms

This paper makes use of a reform that allowed firms to use patents as stand-alone collateral, to estimate the magnitude of collateral constraints and to quantify the aggregate impact of these constraints on misallocation and productivity. Using matched firm-bank data for Norway, we find that bank borrowing increased for firms affected by the reform relative to the control group. We also find an increase in the capital stock, employment and innovation as well as equity funding. We interpret the results through the lens of a model of monopolistic competition with potentially collateral constrained heterogeneous firms. Parameterizing the model using well-identified moments from the reduced form exercise, we find quantitatively large gains in output per worker in the sectors in the economy dominated by constrained (and intangible-intensive) firms. The gains are primarily driven by capital deepening, whereas within-industry misallocation plays a smaller role

Regional Policy Design: An Analysis of Relocation, Efficiency and Equity

Despite substantial regional expenditures at both national and community level, European regional policies do not appear to deliver. The evidence suggests that neither efficiency gains nor reduced regional inequalities are attained. If there is any positive impact at all, then it is at the most a redistributional one. If transfers are mainly redistributional in nature, would policies based on non-distortionary financing be a better route to follow? We ask what are the alternatives to a distortionary regional policy forcing the delocation of activity. Are non-distortionary policies always more efficient than distortionary alternatives? We analyse these questions employing a new economic geography model, where we also take into account the importance of knowledge spillovers for productivity, industry location and policy. It is shown that the effectiveness of different regional policy depends on (i) intra-industry knowledge spillovers, (ii) inter-industry knowledge spillovers, and (iii) trade costs. Our analysis provides insight into what may be the reason for the lack of success of EU regional initiative.EU; knowledge spillovers; new economic geography; Regional policy

Product adjustments: A firm-level analysis of the impact of a real exchange rate shock

Using a new and extensive micro data set we investigate the impact of a change in international competitive pressure following a real exchange shock on multi-product firms’ product mix. We only find weak evidence for the core competencies hypothesis, according to which, we would expect the exposed firms to reduce their product portfolio in response to the shock. But firms exposed to the shock significantly reduced their rate of product churning, relative to the control group of nonexposed firms. Moreover, we find a strong positive link between churning in the range of imported and exported products, suggesting that the product mix of imported inputs may be an important, but less understood, margin of adjustment.firm restructuring; heterogeneous firms; product differentiation; real exchange rate shock

A New Look at Offshoring and Inequality: Specialization Versus Competition

The received wisdom is that a rising skill premium accompanied by a simultaneous rise in skill intensity characterizes relative wages and the employment structure in US manufacturing. However, we present evidence to show that the recent developments in the U.S. do not conform to this pattern and that the evolution of relative wages over the last three decades has in fact been bell-shaped. We argue that this bell-shaped evolution of wage inequality can be linked to globalization and a rise in offshoring. To analyze the relationship between globalization, offshoring and relative wages, we develop a general equilibrium model of trade and offshoring. This reveals that globalization and offshoring have two opposing effects on relative wages: greater vertical specialization increases wage inequality, while greater international competition increases wage inequality. The result is a bell-shaped relationship between wage inequality and offshoring when globalization is driven by falling trade costs for goods. However, we also find that if the globalization process continues as a result of reduced costs of fragmentation, this fosters increased wage inequalities. Consistent with recent observations, our analysis suggests that the fears related to offshoring and inequality may prove unjustified in the short term although the long-term effects may be quite different.globalization; offshoring; trade; wage inequality

Relative Wages and Trade-Induced Changes in Technology

We develop a model where trade liberalization leads to skill-biased technological change, which in turn raises the relative return to skilled labour. As firms get access to a larger market, they have incentives to choose a more skill-intensive technology because a lowering of variable costs requires additional use of skilled labour. This way, we establish a link between trade, technology and relative returns to skilled and unskilled labour. Moreover, we show that as market integration continues and trade costs fall below a certain threshold, the relative return to skilled labour may fall.Imperfect Competition; Technology; Trade; Trade Liberalization; Wages

Globalization, Industrial Policy and Clusters

This Paper analyses industrial policy in a high wage open economy hosting an agglomeration consisting of vertically linked upstream and downstream firms. We show that optimal policy towards upstream industries typically differ from the optimal policy towards downstream industries. Internationalization impacts on the costs as well as on the benefits related to sustaining an industrial agglomeration. Whether maintaining the agglomeration is compatible with a welfare maximizing policy is shown to depend on level of economic integration.economic geography; globalization; industrial clusters; industrial policy

Why are firms that export cleaner? International trade, abatement and environmental emissions

This paper proposes a detailed mechanism for why exporting firms may have a lower emission intensity when emissions are subject to an environmental tax. This mechanism of our model is supported by Swedish firm-level data. Our mechanism runs through firms' endogenous investments in abatement. Firms' abatement investments depend on their production volumes, since a larger scale allows them to spread the fixed costs of abatement investment across more units. Production volumes increase in firm productivity and, as a consequence, firms' emission intensity is negatively related to firm productivity. Exporting also leads to higher production volumes and thereby to a lower emission intensity. Thus, trade has an effect on emissions independently of firm productivity. Trade therefore leads to higher but cleaner production. The overall effect of trade on emissions is neutral in our model. Trade liberalization does not affect aggregate emissions in our benchmark case of symmetric countries