Export, migration and costs of trade: evidence from Central European firms, Regional Studies. This article analyses the link between immigration and trade at the firm level, utilizing information on the export activities of 8300 firms located in different Central European countries (Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary) for various export markets as well as regional data on immigration. The empirical analysis suggests a strong, economically meaningful and statistically significant impact of immigration on the export propensity (extensive margin), whereas the influence on firms' export volumes (intensive margin) is much smaller. This leads to the conclusion that immigrants promote export activities to their home countries mainly by reducing fixed costs of trade.

This paper examines the innovative behavior of agri-food firms located in Central and Eastern Europe. In the literature, empirical analyses on innovation activities of firms focus on various case studies from around the world. However, very few studies explored the innovation of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) from Central and Eastern Europe’s agri-food sector. The analysis uses the logit estimation method and firm-level data, which are obtained from ERBD-World Bank Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey (BEEPS). Results suggest that firms that spent some proportion of their financial budget on research and development (R&D), had workforce training programs and bought fixed assets are more likely to launch product, process, organizational and marketing innovations.

This study introduces a new firm-level dataset containing over two million projects co-funded by the European Union´s (EU) structural and Cohesion funds in 25 EU member states in the multi-annual financial framework 2007-2013. Information on individual beneficiary firms and institutions published by regional authorities is linked with business data from Bureau van Dijk's ORBIS database. Moreover, we show how modern text mining techniques can be used to categorise EU funded projects into fifteen thematic categories proposed by the European Commission. A first analysis of the dataset reveals substantial heterogeneity of beneficiaries and projects across and within countries. While in the majority of lagging regions the largest project expenditure is dedicated to transportation and energy infrastructure, in most other regions the major part is assigned to innovation and technological development as well as business (including SME) support. In an econometric analysis we control for project and firm characteristics and find that the highest single project values are associated with older beneficiary firms that are larger in size. Furthermore, the projects with topmost expenditure are carried out in Dutch and British regions. / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

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This study presents a new firm- and project-level dataset containing data on over two million projects co-funded by the EU structural and cohesion funds in 25 EU member states during the programming period 2007-2013. Information on individual beneficiary firms and institutions is linked with business data of Bureau van Dijk's ORBIS database. Moreover, text mining techniques are applied to categorise the EU cohesion policy projects into fifteen thematic categories. Stylised facts reveal substantial regional heterogeneity in the distribution of funds to certain projects and beneficiaries (with respect to their size or industry). Furthermore, regional funds distribution differs across less developed and higher-income as well as urban and rural regions. In an econometric analysis, we control for project and firm characteristics that we expect to determine the single project's value, which is confirmed by the results. Nevertheless, there remains unexplained variation in individual project volumes, which differs systematically across countries.

La littérature récente en commerce international et macroéconomie a souligné le rôle majeur de grandes firmes dans les résultats agrégés d'une économie. Les grandes firmes influencent, inter alia, les fluctuations économiques, les performances à l'exportation et les inégalités de salaires et de coût de la vie. Il est donc crucial de saisir comment les grandes firmes émergent et se comportent. Cette thèse s'intéresse à trois aspects de cette question. Premièrement, j'étudie comment les firmes ajustent la qualité de leurs produits à une intensification de la compétition "low-cost" sur les marchés étrangers. Pour ce faire, je développe une nouvelle méthode d'estimation de la qualité des produits au niveau firme et je trouve que les firmes augmentent leur qualité en réponse à la compétition "low-cost". Deuxièmement, j'examine la manière dont les firmes ajustent leurs ventes lorsqu'un choc de demande (e.g., une récession) frappe une de leurs destinations. Dans le cadre de l'industrie du Champagne durant la récession de 2000-2001, je montre que les firmes ré-allouent leurs ventes vers les marchés dont les conditions de demandes sont plus favorables. Cela suggère un nouveau mécanisme de diffusion internationale des chocs. Finalement, je regarde la manière dont les firmes ajustent leur taille et leur mix de capital et travail lorsque la régulation du travail contraint plus fortement les grandes firmes. Dans le cas du seuil de 50 employés en France, je trouve que les firmes se contractent et substituent du travail au capital pour limiter le coût de la régulation. Au niveau macro, mes résultats suggèrent que la régulation profite aux travailleurs mais pas aux détenteurs de capital. / Recent literature in international economics and macroeconomics has pointed to the major role played by large firms in shaping aggregate economic outcomes. Large firms influence, inter alia, economic fluctuations, performance on export markets and inequalities between workers and between consumers. It is therefore crucial to understand how large firms emerge and behave. In the present thesis, I look at three independent aspects of this question. First, I study how exporting firms adjust the quality of the products they export in response to an intensification of "low-cost" competition in foreign markets. To this end, I develop a new method to estimate the quality of products at the firm-level and I find evidence that firms upgrade quality in response to "low-cost" competition. Second, I investigate the way exporting firms adjust their sales when a demand shock (e.g. an economic recession, a war) occurs in one of their destinations. In the context of the Champagne wine industry during the 2000-2001 economic recession, I show that firms reallocate their sales toward markets where demand conditions are relatively more favorable. Lastly, I look at the way firms adjust their size and their mix of capital and labor in response to labor regulations which are more binding to large firms. I find that firms shrink and substitute capital for labor to mitigate the labor cost of the regulation. At the aggregate level, preliminary results suggests that workers gain from the regulation while capital owners lose.

Procurement centralization is a process that includes policy decisions on the appropriate level of collaboration, aggregation and standardization. We analyse the main aspects of collaborative procurement: centralization, scope and different market structures. We use a unique dataset that combines Czech tender-level data with the manually-collected data on centrally procured tenders and financial firm-level data for the time span 2008 - 2016. We apply vector generalized linear model to the compulsory centralized procurement sectors and assess the market competition and concentration. We find several key aspects of centralized procurement: the centralization has a significant positive impact on the competition in selected sectors. The framework agreement is recognized as a positive setup of public procurement. We identified a strong negative evidence of the heterogeneity of the procured commodity. The design of centralization process and the degree of centralization is always bound by two elementary questions: the flexibility or unification trade-off and the set-up costs or unit costs trade-off. JEL Classification D44, H11, H57 Keywords public procurement, centralization, tender- level data, firm-level data, market structure, concentration index, vector generalized linear model, Herfindahl-Hirschman...

Étant donné les caractéristiques du nouveau système du commerce international, il est important de revoir la théorie du commerce international dans un cadre d’économie industrielle (IO) qui capture la nature internationale de cartels, l’existence des firmes multiproduits, les interactions stratégiques entre les firmes (structure du marché oligopolistique) et l’hétérogénéité entre les firmes en matière de leur taille (grande vs. petites) afin de tirer des conclusions sur le fait que si la libéralisation du commerce sera suffisante pour encourager la concurrence ou plutôt une politique de concurrence rigoureuse devrait être appliquée en même temps afin de garantir un environnement concurrentiel et donc améliorer le bien-être. Plus précisément, les interactions stratégiques entre les entreprises jouent un rôle important dans l’évaluation de l’effet concurrentiel de la libéralisation du commerce. Cette étude vise à analyser, tout d’abord, comment l’ouverture commerciale et, par conséquent, la baisse des tarifs affectent le niveau de concurrence, la structure du marché, la formation des cartels et, par conséquent le niveau des prix. Deuxièmement, d’étudier comment le commerce affecte le comportement des firmes. L’utilisation des modèles théoriques et des données sur les firmes égyptiennes pour analyser ces questions me permettent de tirer des conclusions sur la substituabilité entre la politique de libéralisation du commerce et la politique de concurrence. Les résultats montrent que, dans un contexte de collusion entre les firmes, l’ouverture au commerce peut induire une augmentation du niveau des prix. De plus, les résultats montrent que les firmes multiproduits ajustent leur portefeuille de produit selon les caractéristiques des destinations. Enfin, proposant une structure de marché mixte quand on analyse le comportement des firmes multiproduits, montre que la mondialisation affecte la structure du marché par le biais de la sortie des petites firmes. Les effets pro-concurrentiels d’ouverture commerciale ne sont pas si évidents. Une politique de concurrence rigoureuse est indispensable afin de dissuader les comportements anticoncurrentiels. / Given the features of the new trade system, it is important to reconsider international trade theory in an Industrial Organization (IO) framework that captures the international nature of cartels, the existence of multi-product firms, strategic interactions between firms (oligopolistic market structure) and the heterogeneity between firms in terms of size (large vs. small firms) to draw conclusions on whether trade liberalization will be sufficient to enhance competition or should a rigorous competition policy be applied at the same time to ensure competition and hence welfare promotion. More precisely, strategic interactions between firms play an important role in assessing the competitive effect of trade liberalization.This study aims to analyze, first, how trade liberalization and, hence, a decline in trade costs affect the level of competition, market structure and cartel formation in the market and, hence the price level. Second, how trade openness affects firms’ behavior. Building theoretical model and using firm-level data from Egypt to analyze these questions allow me to draw conclusions on the substitutability between trade liberalization and competition policy. Findings show that trade openness, in a context of collusion between firms, may induce an increase in the level of price when there are sufficiently large firms in the market. Overall, evidence on a change in multi-product firms’ choice of product mix with tougher competition and larger market size in the destination is revealed. Finally, using a mixed market structure when analyzing multi-product firms’ behavior, shows that globalization affects the market structure through inducing the exit of small firms. Pro-competitive effects of trade openness were not so clear, a rigorous competition policy is crucial to deter anti-competitive behaviors with increasing trade liberalization.

“What drives firms' performance?” remains one of the most intriguing topics in the economic literature. The myriad determinants identified so far include both internal and external factors. While the internal factors tend to relate to either firms' characteristics or the business decision-making process determined by managers/owners, the external factors tend to relate to the business environment and any possible stimulus for the conditions in which firms are located and operate. This thesis follows the strand of literature that continues the quest for relevant firm-performance-driving factors, taking an applied approach. The thesis, consisting in three essays, provides empirical evidence of how trade liberalization, together with local business environment features, affects firms' performance in the context of a transitional country, Vietnam. The main focus centres particularly on firms' productivity (the first and second essays). As firms use labour as an indispensable input of production, interest, in the third essay, shifts to firm-level demand for skills so as to understand also potential consequences of trade reform policies for the labour market. Highlights of the three essays are as follows: The first essay (Chapter 2) investigates the interplay of trade liberalization and local business environment features in affecting firms’ productivity. Particular interest lies in how frictions in the local business environment where firms operate alter the productivity gains from trade. Making use of a large panel dataset of Vietnamese manufacturing firms from 2006 to 2012, the analysis provides robust evidence of a positive effect of trade liberalization on firms’ total factor productivity. However, distortions in the local business environment such as unenforceable property rights, an ineffective land-titling system, bureaucratic hurdles and labour market frictions play a crucial role in the transmission of trade liberalization shocks. It is recommended, from the results obtained, that complementary business environment reforms addressing local market constraints need to be implemented alongside trade liberalization. The second essay (Chapter 3) investigates first the impact on firms’ productivity of trade liberalization and second how corruption interacts with trade policies. Particular interest centres on how firms’ productivity improvement induced by trade openness is reduced by corruption. Using firm-level data on Vietnamese manufacturing enterprises from 2000 to 2012, the period of which spans the country's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), the analysis provides robust causal evidence that trade openness increases firms’ productivity, the higher so if firms export. However, the productivity gains expected by firms from trade liberalization are reduced by corruption, which has important implications for aggregate productivity. The findings suggest that complementary policies addressing either export constraints or corruption need to be implemented in company with trade reform policies. The third essay (Chapter 4) investigates the firm-level employment consequences of trade liberalization. Particular interest is given to how small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) adjust their labour demand in response to different types of trade shocks. Using a unique dataset of private manufacturing SMEs over the 2003--2014 period that captures the 2007–2008 drastic reduction in both output and input tariffs, that analysis shows that the effects on firms' labour demand of output and input tariff liberalization are non-identical. While output tariff liberalization has a labour-friendly effect on unskilled workers, a reduction in input tariffs has an “absolute” skill-biased effect, shifting firms’ demand from unskilled workers to skilled labour. The findings suggest important consequences of trade openness for the labour market evolution. A cautious view on the employment consequences of trade openness is strongly suggested, coupled with the implementation of coherent education and training policies to guide the labour supply under trade liberalization. The contributions of this thesis to the literature are as follows. First, it helps to understand how firms adjust to trade liberalization policies in terms of both behaviour and performance in the context of a developing country in transition. Second, it shows that the effectiveness of trade liberalization policies significantly varies with the business environment conditions, explaining why gains from trade are unevenly distributed across locations. Third, in a movement towards free trade, benefits are shown to go hand in hand with drawbacks. In terms of policy implications, a thorough multi-dimensional view on the potential consequences of trade openness is highly recommended. Besides, the effective implementation of appropriate complementary policies in the wake of trade liberalization is of utmost importance in order to first achieve an overall optimal economic outcome and second make trade openness beneficial for everyone.