What type of businesses do unions target for organizing? A dynamic model of the union organizing process is constructed to answer this question. A union monitors establishments in an industry to learn about their productivity and decides which ones to organize and when. An establishment becomes...

Countries that control foreign direct investment (FDI) often face the trade-off between following national policy interests and suffering efficiency losses arising from FDI restrictions. We demonstrate the presence of this trade-off in the case of a protectionist FDI policy in Indonesia that...

The phenomenon of physical R&D-manufacturing co-location is interesting, because researchers have made very different observations regarding its prevalence. In some populations co-location of the two functions seems to be the norm; in others, an exception. However, we still do not have an...

The modern manufacturing firm competes with product quality improvements rather than cost efficient production of simpler products. R&D spending, marketing, availability of spare parts and service facilities, customs designs, etc. embody the product quality enhancing process, requiring...

Many basic economic theories with perfectly functioning markets do not predict the existence of the vast number of microenterprises readily observed across the world. We put forward a model that illuminates why financial and managerial capital constraints may impede experimentation, and thus...

We test whether managerial human capital has a first order effect on the performance and growth of small enterprises in emerging markets. In a randomized control trial in Puebla, Mexico, we randomly assigned 150 out of 432 small and medium size enterprises to receive subsidized consulting...

Using a new panel dataset of about 140 thousand Portuguese firms during 2006-2019, we measure the effects of globalization on firm-level performance along four dimensions: ownership of capital, employment of foreign-seasoned managers, and participation in export and import markets. Once at least...

Using firm level panel data for the years 1996-2001, covering all sectors of the economy, the impact of multinational ownership on the exit decisions of firms located in Belgium is estimated. In the analysis, I clearly distinguish for nationality of ownership, allowing for possible differences...

This paper tests some of the predictions of recent advances in trade theory that have focused on different trade patterns of firms within the same sector. Helpman, Melitz and Yeaple (2005) develop a model in which innate productivity differences between firms determine the degree of...

This paper tests some of the predictions of recent advances in trade theory that have focused on different trade patterns of firms within the same sector. Helpman, Melitz and Yeaple (2005) develop a model in which innate productivity differences between firms determine the degree of...