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

Using an estimated dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model, I show that shocks to a common international stochastic trend explain on average about 10% of the variability of output in several small developed economies. These shocks explain roughly twice as much of the volatility of...

Similar to bilateral or regional preferential trade agreements (PTAs), bilateral investment treaties (BITs) have proliferated over the past 50years. The purpose of this study is to provide the first systematic empirical analysis of the economic determinants of BITs and of the likelihood of BITs...

This paper studies technology transfer when technology is embodied in human capital and learning requires on-the-job communication between managers and workers. Patterns of technology diffusion depend on where high knowledge managers work and how much time they allocate to training workers....

We document several new features of firms' export entry and exit behaviors: i) one-third of exporting firms enter into and exit from exporting multiple times; ii) most continuing exporters enter and exit specific export destinations multiple times; iii) firms re-entering exporting often sell the...

Fixed costs associated with learning about demand and setting up distribution networks are expected to be lower when there are more potential contacts in the destination market, suggesting a greater probability of market entry and larger export revenues. We match historically-determined...

The breakdown of global factor price equalization, or a single-cone world, is a central concern in various fields of economics. This paper examines the empirical validities of the following two claims: 1) the multiple-cone Heckscher–Ohlin (HO) model fits better than does the single-cone HO...

The explosion of multinational activities in recent decades is rapidly transforming the global landscape of industrial production. But are the emerging clusters of multinational production the rule or the exception? What drives the offshore agglomeration of multinational firms in comparison to...

This paper develops a model of cross-border M&A activity that features firm-level productivity shocks and endogenous export activity. We show that foreign firms will be relatively more attracted to targets in the domestic country that had high productivity levels that induced them to invest in...

Shipping goods internationally is risky and takes time. To allocate risk and to finance the time gap between production and sale, a range of payment contracts is utilized. I study the optimal choice between these payment contracts and their implications for trade. The equilibrium contract is...