This paper investigates whether government support can act to increase exporting activity. We use a uniquely rich data set on Irish manufacturing plants and employ an empirical strategy that combines a non-parametric matching procedure with a difference-in-differences estimator in order to deal...

It has recently been shown that the firm size distribution is initially skewed to the right and then evolves over time to become more lognormal, and argued that this is likely due to firms initially facing financial constraints, see Cabral and Mata(2003). We conjecture that, if this is true,...

We examine the importance of a firm's own R&D activity and intra-sectoral spillovers on the decision to export and the export intensity using firm level panel data for Spain for the period 1990 to 1998. Our results are in line with preceding findings on the role played by firm-specific variables...

According to the 'convergence hypothesis' multinational companies will tend to displace national firms and trade as total market size increases and as countries converge in relative size, factor endowments, and production costs. Using a recent model developed by Markusen and Venables (1998) as a...

It has recently been shown that the firm size distribution is initially skewed to the right and then evolves over time to become more log-normal, and argued that this is likely due to firms initially facing financial constraints, see Cabral and Mata (2003). We conjecture that, it this is true,...

This paper presents some analysis of the effects that outward FDI can have on productivity and in the home country. We focus on sectors that are seen as being low, or medium/ low technology sectors, and using firm level data for the UK, compare a number a of different measures of FDI, and a...

We study the coagglomeration of domestic plants and foreign multinationals and the impact of this on domestic plant productivity and employment using data for Irish manufacturing. Relying on a recently developed index we find that coagglomeration has been important for a number of industries....

Despite a growing number of empirical studies on efficiency spillovers arising from the presence of multinational firms for a number of countries, general conclusions on this issue have been inhibited by differences in the data sets and estimation techniques used across studies. In this paper we...

This paper analyses empirically the link between regional inequalities and economic development. Our starting hypothesis in this regard is that the evolution of regional inequalities should follow a bell-shaped curve depending on the level of national economic development since growth by its...

We study the pattern of concentration of industries in EU countries and regions between 1972 and 1995. We find that changes in concentration levels were mainly due to industry mobility rather than historical accidents and past levels of concentration as often argued by the New Economic Geography...