This thesis provides four contributions to the literature on the productivity- internationalization nexus by considering some recent developments in the literature. A well-established stylized fact is reported by this literature, which is that exporters are more productive and larger than non-exporters, and two hypotheses attempt to explain this finding. The first, often referred to as the self-selection hypothesis, suggests that more productive firms select themselves into export markets, while the learning-by-exporting hypothesis highlights the role of learning from exporting. In this thesis, first, the self-selection hypothesis is revisited, and it is shown that evidence against self-selection exists in some UK industries. Second, it is demon- strated that some UK firms experience rising marginal costs, although both tra- ditional and new trade theories assume constant marginal cost. It is then shown that the evidence against self-selection that we report can be best explained by the existence of increasing, rather than constant, marginal costs. Third, the learning by exporting hypothesis is tested empirically for UK firms. Highlighting the importance of the scale effect in total factor productivity growth, it is shown that any learning by exporting effects are predominantly attributable to a change in scale efficiency. Unlike Melitz (2003), some recent studies consider some other strategies to access foreign markets, such as foreign direct investment, and cross-border mergers. Finally, following this new branch of the literature, the productivity-internationalization nexus is examined by utilizing a two-country oligopolistic model. It is shown that more productive firm might prefer greenfield investment over cross-border merger, which contradicts the findings provided by the relevant literature.

This dissertation consists of three essays in international economics. The first chapter investigates whether opening up to international financial flows improves aggregate productivity in the presence of limited contract enforceability. I present a model of two countries that differ in terms of the degree of contract enforcement and analyze the consequences of financial market integration among those countries. Then, I test the predictions of the model empirically. The model predicts that aggregate productivity improves after financial integration in economies with strong contract enforcement, while it deteriorates in countries with weak enforcement. The empirical analysis confirms that the effect of capital account liberalization on productivity is different in economies with different degrees of contract enforcement. The second chapter addresses whether foreign firms harm the environment in a host country where environmental standards are not as strict as in the source country. The question as to whether strict environmental regulations in developed economies cause the relocation of pollution-intensive production into developing countries has captured the attention of economists. Instead, we ask whether multinational firms, frequently the target of environmentalists, are in fact harmful for a host country's environment. Using plant-level data from Chile, we find that foreign firms are cleaner than domestic plants. We then propose a model that delivers these features of the data. Using the model we get policy implications regarding environmental regulations and multinational production. The last chapter examines the link between producer's productivity and export participation. Empirical work reveals that exporters have substantially higher productivity than non-exporters. The two explanations proposed for the apparent gap are self-selection of firms into competitive export markets and learning by exporting. Knowing the direction of causality between productivity and exporting has important policy implications. If firms become exporters simply because they are more productive and there are no further gains from being an exporter, then policies that aim to increase the number of exporters are not appropriate. I test these hypotheses by applying matching techniques on plant-level data from the Chilean manufacturing sector. I find clear evidence for self-selection, relatively more efficient firms become exporters. However, I do not detect further improvement of productivity following the entry into export markets. / text

Submitted by Synthia Santana (synthiak@gmail.com) on 2016-08-25T02:11:00Z No. of bitstreams: 1 tese_synthiasantana_fgv_2016.pdf: 773575 bytes, checksum: da0b6a9c0a54bdbdaf151d619733b1b9 (MD5) / Rejected by Letícia Monteiro de Souza (leticia.dsouza@fgv.br), reason: Prezada Synthia, Favor alterar a ficha catalográfica para o tamanho padrão, pois em seu trabalho ele se encontra diminuído. Atenciosamente, Letícia Monteiro 3799-3631 on 2016-08-25T12:43:35Z (GMT) / Submitted by Synthia Santana (synthiak@gmail.com) on 2016-08-25T13:53:29Z No. of bitstreams: 1 tese_synthiasantana_fgv_2016.pdf: 772567 bytes, checksum: f883200bc436b2dc33ab5879fb3dfaf0 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Letícia Monteiro de Souza (leticia.dsouza@fgv.br) on 2016-08-25T14:01:09Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 tese_synthiasantana_fgv_2016.pdf: 772567 bytes, checksum: f883200bc436b2dc33ab5879fb3dfaf0 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-25T14:20:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 tese_synthiasantana_fgv_2016.pdf: 772567 bytes, checksum: f883200bc436b2dc33ab5879fb3dfaf0 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-07-29 / The wide availability of data at the firm level in the past twenty years has opened a new range of opportunities for testing important economic theories. In this thesis we aim to explore the complementarity between international trade and investments on innovation in the Brazilian manufacturing industry. In this framework we recognize that innovation is important for firms both because of the positive externalities that it exhibits as with regard to the social returns it provides. For this reason, governments often subsidize these investments, especially the riskiest ones. However, it is still poorly understood how subsidized firms perform over time as we make clear in the first chapter. Although the Economic Subvention Program (ESP) operated by FINEP has aimed at increase innovation activities and the competitiveness of Brazilian companies, the empirical exercise reveals that between 2006 and 2009 there was no significant impact on variables such as productivity, wages per employee, entry/survival in the international market and other relevant policy outcomes. In the second chapter we show that there are gains after entry into the international market for the exporters in the period 1998-2011. Such learning by exporting effects explore innovation as a relevant channel once newly exporting firms have access to inputs, machineries, processes and higher technological standards as those adopted domestically. In the empirical exercise we show that the starters spend significantly more on innovation after entry, compared with extremely similar but essentially domestic firms. The results are robust to several starters categories and are stronger for the period 2004-2008. / A ampla disponibilidade de dados ao nível da firma nos últimos vinte anos abriu um novo leque de oportunidades para o teste de teorias econômicas importantes. Nesta tese pretendemos explorar a complementaridade entre a inserção internacional das empresas e os investimentos em inovação na indústria de transformação brasileira. No arcabouço que exploramos a inovação é importante para as firmas tanto em virtude das externalidades positivas que exibem quanto em termos dos retornos sociais proporcionados. Por este motivo, os governos subsidiam parte desses investimentos, especialmente aqueles que envolvem maior risco. Entretanto, ainda se sabe pouco com relação a como as firmas subsidiadas se comportam ao longo do tempo conforme fica evidente no primeiro capítulo. Embora o Programa de Subvenção Econômica operado pela FINEP tenha por objetivo o aumento significativo das atividades de inovação e o incremento da competitividade das empresas, o exercício empírico revela que entre 2006 e 2009 não houve impacto expressivo em variáveis como produtividade, salário por trabalhador, entrada/permanência no mercado internacional e outros outcomes relevantes. No segundo capítulo mostramos que há ganhos subsequentes à entrada no mercado internacional para as firmas exportadoras com relação ao período 1998-2011. Tal efeito aprendizado do comércio internacional utiliza a inovação como um canal relevante uma vez que tais firmas passam a ter acesso a insumos, equipamentos, processos e padrões tecnológicos superiores àqueles praticados domesticamente. No exercício empírico realizado mostramos que as empresas estreantes no mercado internacional gastam significativamente mais em inovação posteriormente à estreia, comparado com empresas extremamente semelhantes mas essencialmente domésticas. Os resultados são robustos a diversas categorias de estreia e são mais fortes para o período 2004-2008.