We develop a dynamic model of inventory investment and trade to examine how firms adjust to changes in international trade costs when facing a risk of stockouts due to demand uncertainty and order lead times for imports. We study two strategies firms may use to avoid stockouts, namely holding...

We use unique plant-level data to study the link between the local availability of services andthe decision of manufacturing firms to source materials from abroad. To guide our empiricalanalysis we develop a monopolistic-competition model of the materials sourcing decisions ofheterogeneous...

This paper uses an oligopoly model with heterogeneous firms to examine how an industryadjusts to rising import competition. The model predicts that in the short run the least efficientfirms in the industry become inactive, surviving firms face a fall in output, mark-ups andprofits, and the...

We use unique plant-level data to study the link between the local availability of services and the decision of manufacturing firms to source materials from abroad. To guide our empirical analysis we develop a monopolistic-competition model of the materials sourcing decisions of heterogeneous...

This paper uses micro-data from the World Bank Investment Climate Surveys 2002-2006 to investigate how foreign ownership and access to external finance affect the likelihood of manufacturers in emerging markets to export and/or import. Applying propensity score matching to control for...

This paper uses micro-data from the World Bank Investment Climate Surveys 2002-2006 to investigate how foreign ownership and access to external finance affect the likelihood of manufacturers in emerging markets to export and/or import. Applying propensity score matching to control for...

This paper examines how trade liberalization affects the innovation incentives of firms, and what this implies for industry productivity and social welfare. For this purpose we develop a reciprocal dumping model of international trade with heterogeneous firms and endogenous R&D. We identify two...

This paper investigates the implications for international markets of the existence of retailers/wholesalers with market power. Two main results are shown. First, in the presence of buyer power trade liberalization may lead to retail market concentration. Due to this concentration retail prices...

This paper shows that a manufacturer may benefit from parallel trade. In addition to an intuitive condition about the effect of demand shocks, this occurs when competitive retailers must order inventories before they know the realization of demand and for products whose sale value drops at the...

This paper examines the link between a firm's ownership of productive assets and its choice of foreign-market entry strategy. We find that, controlling for industry- and country-specific characteristics, the most productive firms (i.e., those owning the most assets) will enter through greenfield...