This paper provides an estimation of the reaction of firm-level exports consecutive to real exchange rate movements - the exchange rate elasticity of exports. Following recent theoretical works emphasizing the role played by firm heterogeneity, we test in particular how the exchange rate...

This paper studies how outsourcing of services activities affects TFP at the firm level. Using the universe of buyer-supplier relationships in Belgium, we first document several new empirical facts about how firms engage in the outsourcing of supporting activities. We show that virtually all...

This paper provides an updated overview of the network of Belgian business-to-business transactions from 2002 to 2021, building on the previous vintage of the dataset which covered 2002-2014. Leveraging data from VAT client lists, we establish a comprehensive and cohesive database detailing the...

Low export participation of firms across countries is typically related to high entry costs allowing only the most productive firms to serve foreign markets. In this paper, we move beyond individual firm characteristics to explain export participation and investigate whether firms' domestic...

This paper presents a tractable model of endogenous production networks with fixed costs associated with the formation of links between firms. The model consists of a finite number of firm types producing differentiated products. Each firm is characterized by firm-specific parameters describing...

We use Belgian data on domestic firm-to-firm transactions and ask how the measurement of the share of imports in final consumption is affected when one uses data recorded at higher levels of aggregation. We find that aggregating detailed firm-to-firm transaction data to the firm level and...

The main purpose of this Working Paper is providing an overview of the economic importance of the Flemish maritime ports, the Liège port complex and the port of Brussels over the period 2014–2019 in terms of value added, employment and investment based on annual account figures. In 2019,...

Whilst overall productivity growth is stalling, firms at the frontier are still able to capture the benefits of the newest technologies and business practices. This paper uses linked employer-employee data covering all Belgian firms over a period of almost 20 years and investigates the...

This paper uses Business to Business (B2B) transaction level data. It shows that manufacturing firms that initially export via a wholesaler are much more likely to become direct exporters to the same destination in subsequent periods. Theoretically, we rationalise this finding by demonstrating...

We quantify and explain the firm responses and worker impacts of foreign demand shocks to domestic production networks. To capture that firms can be indirectly exposed to such shocks by buying from or selling to domestic firms that import or export, we use Belgian data with information on both...