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...

We provide a theoretical justification for bi-sourcing, which refers to thesituation where a final goods producer buys an input from an outside supplier and alsoproduces it in-house. Bi-sourcing occurs if the marginal cost of producing the input inhouseis higher than the marginal cost of outside...

This paper provides a simple theory of geographical mobility which simultaneously explainspeople’s choice of residences in space and the location of industry. Residences are chosenon the basis of the utility which mobile households obtain across locations...

This paper investigates the impacts of progressive trade openness, technological externalities,and heterogeneity of individuals on the formation of entrepreneurship in a two-countryoccupation choice model. We show that trade opening gives rise to a non-monotonic processof international...

We investigate the impact of changes in international trade and domestic transport costs on the internalgeography of a domestic economy linked to the rest of the World through a hub. We address that issue bydeveloping two three regions model, namely a version of the Footlose Entrepreneur and a...

In this paper we build a quality-augmented version of an economic geography model whereconsumers have heterogenous tastes for a set of manufacturing varieties. We discuss afootloose capital model and a footloose entrepreneur model. We show that firms selling thegoods with higher values select...

We investigate the role of the transport sector in structuring the location of economic activitywithin two-region economic geography models of the footloose capital and core-peripherytypes. In our setting, competitive carriers offer transport services for shipping manufacturedgoods across...

We develop a model with two asymmetric countries. Firms choose the number andthe location of plants that they operate. The production of each firm increases whentrade costs fall. The fall also induces multinationals to repatriate their production intoa single country, which is likely to be the...

We develop a model of commodity tax competition with monopolistically competitive internationallymobile firms, transport costs, and asymmetric country sizes. We investigate the impacts of noncooperativetax setting, as well as of tax harmonization and changes in the tax principle, in both...

We investigate whether the supply of Venture Capital (VC) in Germany is driven by spatial influences. The study is based on information from more than 300 VC investments made in Germany between 2004 and 2005. We find evidence that the geographical distance between a VC company and the portfolio...