International value chains : opportunities and challenges for small and developing countries

While internationalisation can improve firm performance, it is often only the most productive firms that are able to internationalise (Wagner, 2005, 2012; Melitz, 2003). Recent reductions in transportation costs and trade barriers alongside technological advances have fragmented production into intermediate tasks that can be executed in several countries, creating international value chains (IVCs). These IVCs can act as a stepping stone for less productive firms to tap into international markets, and benefit from learning-by-doing, without taking on all the tasks in the value chain, thereby lowering the entry requirements for internationalisation associated with exports (OECD, 2008). This article examines the opportunities and challenges of IVCs for SMEs in small and developing countries and, in a final section, applies some of these lessons to Scotland

Going Dutch? Firm exports and FDI in the wake of the 2014 EU-Russia sanctions

We examine the 2014 European Union economic sanctions on exports to Russia and the Russian retaliatory measures on imports from several Western countries. Using the universe of highly disaggregated international trade and taxation data for firms in the Netherlands, we systematically analyze the impact of these economic sanctions on Dutch firms' exports and foreign direct investment. Our analyses account for the product-specific EU restrictions on arms, equipment used for oil exploration and extraction, and dual-use products suitable for civilian and military use, as well as the Russian import ban on various primary commodities. Our empirical findings highlight the overall negative impact of sanctions on the intensive margin of exports. However, having a foreign affiliate in Russia helps to mitigate the otherwise negative impact of sanctions on the extensive margin of exports. We also show that exporters do not circumvent sanctions by setting up a local affiliate in Russia. In fact, exposure to Russian countersanctions may even force firms to close their Russian affiliates

ERS statement on standardisation of cardiopulmonary exercise testing in chronic lung diseases

The objective of this document was to standardise published cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) protocols for improved interpretation in clinical settings and multicentre research projects. This document: 1) summarises the protocols and procedures used in published studies focusing on incremental CPET in chronic lung conditions; 2) presents standard incremental protocols for CPET on a stationary cycle ergometer and a treadmill; and 3) provides patients’ perspectives on CPET obtained through an online survey supported by the European Lung Foundation. We systematically reviewed published studies obtained from EMBASE, Medline, Scopus, Web of Science and the Cochrane Library from inception to January 2017. Of 7914 identified studies, 595 studies with 26 523 subjects were included. The literature supports a test protocol with a resting phase lasting at least 3 min, a 3-min unloaded phase, and an 8- to 12-min incremental phase with work rate increased linearly at least every minute, followed by a recovery phase of at least 2–3 min. Patients responding to the survey (n=295) perceived CPET as highly beneficial for their diagnostic assessment and informed the Task Force consensus. Future research should focus on the individualised estimation of optimal work rate increments across different lung diseases, and the collection of robust normative data.The document facilitates standardisation of conducting, reporting and interpreting cardiopulmonary exercise tests in chronic lung diseases for comparison of reference data, multi-centre studies and assessment of interventional efficacy. http://bit.ly/31SXeB

Essays on global value chains

The past four decades have seen a large increase in trade via Global Value Chains (GVCs) as well as the relative demand for skilled labour. This thesis centres around the question how the former influences the latter. It firstly describes the large theoretical and empirical ambiguity that exists in the literature before proposing a novel graphical exposition of the channels by which GVCs affect the relative demand for skilled labour. This graph can synthesize the literature and show how small changes in microeconomic foundations can crucially alter predicted outcomes, greatly reducing theoretical ambiguity. It can also serve as a conceptual framework for empirical analysis which should remain the key method to analyse the research question.;Therefore, Chapters 2 and 3 employ micro and macro level data, respectively, and condition their results on the conclusions drawn from this conceptual framework. In line with that framework, this thesis finds that the relative skill abundance of the countries engaged in the GVC, which is used as a proxy for the factor bias of the GVC activity, crucially determines the results. On the other hand, the skill intensity of the sector that engages in GVCs does not seem to affect the results. This can best be interpreted in that GVCs allow (firms within) countries to specialise in their comparative advantage at an even more granular level than before, i.e. in the production of intermediate goods or tasks, rather than final goods.;Finally, Chapter 4, rather than looking at the effects of GVCs, looks at some of the causes. While formal tariffs have been going down, allowing the expansion of GVCs, non-tariff measures (NTMs) have increased. Chapter 4, however, finds that these NTMs do not significantly affect the export values of goods within that same value chain.The past four decades have seen a large increase in trade via Global Value Chains (GVCs) as well as the relative demand for skilled labour. This thesis centres around the question how the former influences the latter. It firstly describes the large theoretical and empirical ambiguity that exists in the literature before proposing a novel graphical exposition of the channels by which GVCs affect the relative demand for skilled labour. This graph can synthesize the literature and show how small changes in microeconomic foundations can crucially alter predicted outcomes, greatly reducing theoretical ambiguity. It can also serve as a conceptual framework for empirical analysis which should remain the key method to analyse the research question.;Therefore, Chapters 2 and 3 employ micro and macro level data, respectively, and condition their results on the conclusions drawn from this conceptual framework. In line with that framework, this thesis finds that the relative skill abundance of the countries engaged in the GVC, which is used as a proxy for the factor bias of the GVC activity, crucially determines the results. On the other hand, the skill intensity of the sector that engages in GVCs does not seem to affect the results. This can best be interpreted in that GVCs allow (firms within) countries to specialise in their comparative advantage at an even more granular level than before, i.e. in the production of intermediate goods or tasks, rather than final goods.;Finally, Chapter 4, rather than looking at the effects of GVCs, looks at some of the causes. While formal tariffs have been going down, allowing the expansion of GVCs, non-tariff measures (NTMs) have increased. Chapter 4, however, finds that these NTMs do not significantly affect the export values of goods within that same value chain

Going Dutch? Firm exports and FDI in the wake of the 2014 EU-Russia sanctions

We examine the 2014 European Union economic sanctions on exports to Russia and the Russian retaliatory measures on imports from several Western countries. Using the universe of highly disaggregated international trade and taxation data for firms in the Netherlands, we systematically analyze the impact of these economic sanctions on Dutch firms' exports and foreign direct investment. Our analyses account for the product-specific EU restrictions on arms, equipment used for oil exploration and extraction, and dual-use products suitable for civilian and military use, as well as the Russian import ban on various primary commodities. Our empirical findings highlight the overall negative impact of sanctions on the intensive margin of exports. However, having a foreign affiliate in Russia helps to mitigate the otherwise negative impact of sanctions on the extensive margin of exports. We also show that exporters do not circumvent sanctions by setting up a local affiliate in Russia. In fact, exposure to Russian countersanctions may even force firms to close their Russian affiliates

Foreign Direct Investment and Productivity: A Cross-Country, Multisector Analysis

This paper adopts a cross-country, multisector approach to investigate the intra- and inter-industry effects of foreign direct investment (FDI) on the productivity of 15 emerging market economies in 2000 and 2008. Our main finding is that intra-industry FDI has a large positive effect on total and “exported” labor productivity. The effects of FDI on total factor productivity are much more elusive, both in statistical and economic terms. This result suggests that foreign firms raise the performance of their host economies through a direct compositional effect. Foreign firms tend to be larger and more input intensive and have greater access to foreign markets than domestic firms. Their greater prevalence mechanically increases average labor productivity and export performance

The impact of after-school programme on student achievement: empirical evidence from the ASA education programme in Bangladesh

This study examines the effectiveness of an after-school tutoring programme that was implemented throughout Bangladesh. The exam results for three distinct classes (Bengali, English and Mathematics) were collected over three consecutive periods during 2015. The total sample of 1353 students was separated into a treatment group of 900 students that were enrolled in the programme, and a control group of 453 students that were not enrolled in the programme. Using a difference-in-difference setup, the results show that the treatment group significantly improved their grades over time compared to the control group. This difference was found to be significant for all three classes and ranged from 2.3 percentage points in English to 3.4 percentage points in Mathematics. To check the robustness of this finding, student-fixed effects were included that control for any time-invariant differences between individual students and the results remained unchanged. The overall results indicate that the after-school tutoring programme had a significant and positive effect on the school performance of students

Sanctions Dataset for Kohl, van den Berg & Franssen (2023), "Going Dutch? Firm Exports and FDI in the Wake of the 2014 EU-Russia Sanctions", Review of International Economics

Sanctions dataset for Kohl T, Berg M van der, Franssen L (2023), “Going Dutch? Firm exports and FDI in the wake of the 2014 EU-Russia sanctions”, Review of International Economics, https://doi.org/10.1111/roie.12717