China's Industrial Transfer Policy (ITP) is a novel place-based development policy of unprecedented scale. The policy targets a set of inland cities aiming to i) grow them in size and ii) restructure them into manufacturing hubs. These cities would eventually relieve pressure in China's coastal...

We analyse the economic impacts of place-based policies that aim to enhance economic development by stimulating growth and productivity of firms in designated areas. We use unique panel data from China with information on manufacturing firms’ production factors, productivity and location, and...

We decompose the wage premium after foreign acquisitions of Dutch domestic firms into the con- stituent firm- and worker-level premia. Firm-level premia grow up to 3.5%, accounting for the major- ity of the acquisition premium. Worker-level premia by contrast, grow up to 1% and only materialize...

With China's 2001 WTO accession, trade costs between the US and China fell sharply, but the transport costs of Chinese imports within the US remained sizable. We argue that domestic transport costs shield local labor markets from globalization. Using a shift-share design for industry-level...

Do workers in multinational enterprises (MNEs) build stronger CVs? We track the careers of all workers entering the Dutch labor market over the years 2006-2021 and find large and portable wage premia of MNE employment experience. Workers with experience at MNEs instead of domestic firms earn up...