We present cross-country evidence that a country's macroeconomic volatility, measured either by the standard deviation of output growth or the occurrence of trend-growth breaks, is significantly affected by the country's historical variables. In particular, countries with longer histories of...

We study the role of institutional development as a causal mechanism of history affecting current economic performance. Several indicators capturing different dimensions of early development in 1500AD are used to remove the endogenous component of the variations in institutions. These indicators...

This paper studies the diffusion of multiple, related technologies among firms. The results suggest an endogenous acceleration mechanism of technology adoption: The more advanced a firm is in using a particular set of technologies, the more likely it is to adopt additional, related technologies....

Recent evidence suggests that despite opening up a country for trade, the productivity gap between developed and emerging economies often does not close. This paper examines credit constraints as one channel held responsible for hampering convergence. Specifically, we extend a Melitz and...

We analyse how different labour market institutions - employment protection versus flexicurity - affect technology adoption in unionised firms. We consider both trade unions' incentives to oppose or endorse labour-saving technology, and firms' incentives to invest in such technology. We find...

This paper investigates technology adoption of a single firm in a continuous time model with an infinite planning horizon and an infinite number of investment opportunities. Technological progress is exogenous and modeled either by a poisson process or a geometric poisson process. For both...

We investigate the impact of investment in automation-related goods on adopting and non-adopting firms in the Italian economy during 2011-2019. We integrate datasets on trade activities, firms', and workers' characteristics for the population of Italian importing firms and estimate the effects...

Additive Manufacturing (AM) enables mass customization and has thereby the potential to revolutionize traditional manufacturing. In this paper, we examine how the adoption of AM affects competition and welfare in traditionally standardized product markets. Analyzing a game-theoretical model of...

Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM) is widely promoted to enhance soil fertility, yields and livelihoods among smallholders, and ultimately combat environmental degradation. Its core is the combined use of organic and inorganic fertilizers with improved crop varieties. Yet, farmers face...

Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM) is a technology package consisting of the joint use of improved seeds, organic and inorganic fertilizers. It is increasingly promoted to enhance soil fertility, crop productivity and income of smallholder farmers. While studies find positive effects of...