Several trends that affect the manufacturing of sophisticated goods – increasing international fragmentation of production, and lean and modular process technologies – have increased the importance of proximity in the supply chain. We use the case of the European automotive industry to...

Trends towards international fragmentation of production and modular process technologies have increased the importance of proximity in the supply chain of sophisticated manufactured goods. Using a rich and novel data set for the European automotive industry, we simultaneously evaluate the...

Firm turnover and growth recorded in administrative data sets differ from underlying firm dynamics. By tracing the employment history of the workforce of new and disappearing administrative firm identifiers, we can accurately identify de novo entrants and true economic exits, even when firms...

Over the reform period, industry has been the source of forty percent of GDP, and has contributed 90% of China’s exports. Annual firm level surveys that begin in 1992, along with industry-wide census in 1995, 2004 and 2008 are rich sources of data on firms’ actions in this important sector....

While many studies explain the correlation between firm-level productivity and export status entirely by better firms self-selecting into exporting, a few studies find evidence of reverse causation. Especially in developing or ransition economies, exporters seem to improve performance after they...

We identify four choice dimensions that determine the configuration and evolution of governance: formal-informal institutions, network-central steering, local-scientific knowledge and representation-participation. Choices on one dimension affect choices on the other dimensions, which naturally...

We evaluate the impact of international competition on firm-level perfor- mance in Belgium. In the manufacturing sector we consider both the impact of global competition through measures of import penetration and the impact of within-EU competitiveness using measures of relative labor cost. In...

During the 1980"s, all Japanese automobile producers opened assembly plants in North America. Industry analysts and previous research claim that these transplants are more productive than incumbent plants and that they produce with a substantially different production process. I compare the...

During the 1980s, all Japanese automobile producers opened assembly plants in North America. Industry analysts and previous research claim that these transplants are more productive than incumbent plants and that they produce with a substantially different production process. We compare the two...