This study uses newly available representative data from German business services firms and a continuous treatment approach based on the generalized propensity score to test for a causal effect of R&D activities (measured by the share of engineers and natural scientists in all employees) on the...

This paper contributes to the literature by providing the first evidence on the link between innovation activities (measured by the share of engineers and scientists in the workforce) and exports of German business services firms based on a large representative longitudinal sample of...

This paper uses an approach recently suggested by Gabaix (Eonometrica 2011) to investigate for the first time the role of idiosyncratic shocks to the largest firms in the dynamics of imports by firms from manufacturing industries. For Germany we find evidence that imports are power-law...

My purpose in this paper is to analyze how offshoring of intermediate goods affects different occupational groups in Swedish manufacturing firms using data for the period 2001-2008. Advances in ICT, along with improved infrastructure and lower cost of transportation have boosted the contracting...

This note uses comparable representative data for manufacturing firms from five European countries (Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom) to investigate the links between firm age and the participation of the firms in export, the share of exports in total sales, the number of...

Motivated by empirical evidence I uncover on the dynamics of French firms exports, I offer a novel theory of trade frictions. Firms only export into markets where they have a contact. They directly search for new trading partners, but also use their existing network of contacts to remotely...

The paper investigates the flows of FDI and trade in eight high performing East Asian economies with a focus on the relationship between FDI and host country exports. The development and importance of FDI and trade for the region is described. The empirical part of the paper examines the...

We analyze the international operations of multinational firms to measure the spatial barriers to transferring knowledge. We model firms that can transfer bits of knowledge to their foreign affiliates in either embodied (traded intermediates) or disembodied form (direct communication). The model...

If trade barriers are managed by inefficient institutions, trade liberalization can lead to greater-than-expected gains. We examine Chinese textile and clothing exports before and after the elimination of externally imposed export quotas. Both the surge in export volume and the decline in export...

This paper explores the links between exports, export destinations, and skill utilization. We identify two mechanisms behind these links: differences across destinations in quality valuation and in exporting required services, activities that are intensive in skilled labor. Depending on the...