This paper studies how learning from neighboring firms affects new exporters' performance and dynamics. We develop a statistical decision model in which a firm updates its prior belief about demand of a foreign market based on the number of neighbors currently selling there, the level and...

We study how firms respond to import competition by increasing the speed of trade. We use data on all Portuguese textile and clothing exporters' monthly transactions and exploit the exogenous increase in competition following the removal of Multi-Fibre Arrangement (MFA) quotas on Chinese...

This paper proposes methods to incorporate firm heterogeneity in the standard IO-table based approach to portray the domestic segment of global value chains in a country. Using Chinese firm census data for both manufacturing and service sectors, along with constrained optimization techniques, we...

This paper proposes a general method to extend a standard input-output (IO) table to incorporate firm heterogeneity when portraying the domestic segment of global value chains in a country. We develop a quadratic optimization model to estimate an extended IO table that reports inter-sector...

China's increased trade with and investment in Africa have boosted the continent's economic growth but have also generated considerable controversy. In this paper we investigate China's outward direct investment ODI in Africa using macro and micro data. The aggregate data on China's ODI in...

China has defied the declining trend in domestic content in exports in many countries. We study China's rising domestic content in exports using firm- and customs transaction-level data. Our approach embraces firm heterogeneity and hence reduces aggregation bias. We find that the substitution of...

This paper studies how firms' offshoring decisions shape a country's domestic production networks. We develop a model in which heterogeneous firms source inputs from multiple industries located in different domestic regions and foreign countries. Input sourcing entails communication with...

We study the global diffusion of culture through multinationals, focusing on gender norms. Using data on manufacturing firms in China over 2004-2007, we find that foreign affiliates from countries with a more gender-equal culture tend to employ proportionally more women and appoint female...

We build a general equilibrium model of endogenous communication, quality control and trade. We derive a structural gravity equation from the model and show that exogenous communication costs raise the costs of quality control and have a larger impact on products with a lower elasticity of...

We examine the supply-side characteristics - unskilled labor, imported input intensity, dependence on inputs from China, production complexity - that determine different potential vulnerabilities of traded products to the COVID-19 pandemic. Relying on monthly exports at the product level by all...