This paper provides a forensic account of the role of individual firms in generating aggregate fluctuations using data covering the universe of French firms for the period 1990–2007. We derive a theoretically-founded set of estimating equations that decompose firms’ annual sales growth rate...

Spatial wage disparities can result from spatial differences in the skill composition of the workforce, in non-human endowments, and in local interactions. To distinguish between these explanations, we estimate a model of wage determination across local labour markets using a very large panel of...

Many European countries have sought to increase the efficiency of national railroad companies through a range of reforms: separating infrastructure and operations, creating independent regulatory institutions and providing access to the network to third parties. To estimate the effects of...

What demand-side and institutional factors raised the skilled wage premium over the 1980s in UK manufacturing? Using a panel of 80 industries for 1980–89 we find that: (i) the average skill premium rose by around 13 percentage points; (ii) computer introduction explains around 50% of this rise;...

We find that in a sample of emerging economies business cycles are more volatile than in developed ones, real interest rates are countercyclical and lead the cycle, consumption is more volatile than output and net exports are strongly countercyclical. We present a model of a small open economy,...

This paper analyzes the financing terms that support international trade and sheds light on how and why these arrangements affect trade. Using detailed transaction level data from a U.S. based exporter of frozen and refrigerated food products, primarily poultry, it begins by describing broad...

In the aftermath of the U.S. financial crisis, both a sharp drop in employment and a surge in corporate cash have been observed. In this paper, based on U.S. data, we document that the negative relationship between the corporate cash ratio and employment is systematic, both over time and across...

The purpose of this paper is to shed some light on why so many smaller-scale firms which have traditionally been classified as sub-optimal scale firms can exist. We suggest that by pursuing a strategy of compensating factor differentials, that is by remunerating and deploying factors of...

Survey information on Swiss exporters is used to test the hypothesis that firm-specific factors, in particular firm size, are important determinants of pricing--to-market (PTM). The survey asked exporters whether they set different prices across markets and, if so, whether price segmentation...

Stochastic frontier production functions are estimated for Bulgarian (1993–5) and Romanian (1994–5) manufacturing industries using firm-level panel data. The technical efficiency of firms is found to vary significantly both within and across industrial sectors in each country. We find strong...