The paper develops a simple theoretical model of inventory control in global value chains. It identifies a role for intermediaries in managing inventory, and shows that inserting an intermediary as an additional link in a value chain is profitable when demand volatility is high. It also provides...

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 Enterprise Surveys to investigate how foreign ownership affects the likelihood of manufacturers in developing countries to export and/or import both directly and in- directly. Applying propensity score matching to control for differences across...