Since the global crisis, China's foreign trade is no longer driven by its involvement in the global supply chains (i.e. by processing trade) but its dynamics stems from China’s own domestic demand and supply. For foreign funded enterprises, China is less and less a production base for export...

We investigate how the export performance of firms in China is influenced by credit constraints. Using panel data from Chinese customs for 1997-2007, we show that credit constraints restrict international trade flows and affect the sectoral composition of firms’ activity. We confirm that...

The global crisis is forcing China’s economy to become less dependent on foreign markets. Manufacturing industry has to adjust to changes in international demand. Foreign affiliates’ processed exports are vulnerable to the slow-down of Western demand, while Chinese exporting firms are better...

This study explores location choices for investors stemming from emerging economies (often referred to as the South), with a particular emphasis on institutions and natural resources. Relying on a novel dataset of bilateral FDI flows between 1996 and 2007, we demonstrate that FDI from the South...

This paper analyzes the transfer pricing of multinational firms. We propose a simple framework in which intra-firm prices may systematically deviate from arm's length prices for two motives: i) pricing to market, and ii) tax avoidance. Multinational firms may decide not to avoid taxes if the...

This paper uses micro-data on balance sheets, trade, and the nationality of ownership of firms in France to investigate the effect of foreign multinationals on business cycle comovement. We first show that foreign affiliates, which represent a tiny fraction of all firms, are responsible for a...

Since 2007 China has considerably reduced its external global imbalances. Its bilateral trade surpluses with the EU and the US have persisted because the rise of China’s import demand has mainly benefited its Asian neighbors and the resource rich countries. The rapid growth of China’s...

In this paper we study the phenomenon of round-trip investment between Russia and key offshore financial centers (OFCs), namely, Cyprus and British Virgin Islands, which is now a significant part of foreign investment into Russia. Using firm-level data we study differences in location strategies...

With the progress of information and communication technologies, the cost and efforts to remotely exchange information have drastically fallen. It has created new opportunities to leverage comparative advantages by reorganizing value chains along the geographic dimension and by reconsidering the...

This paper questions whether the overseas expansion of a country’s retailers fosters overall bilateral exports towards these host markets. To address this question, we consider an empirical trade model, where the foreign sales of multinational retailers reduce the fixed and variable trade...