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on Business Economics |
| By: | Bonfiglioli, Alessandra; Crinò, Rosario; Gancia, Gino |
| Abstract: | We use transaction-level data to study changes in the concentration of US imports. Concentration has fallen in the typical industry, while it is stable by industry and country of origin. The fall in concentration is driven by the extensive margin: the number of exporting firm has grown, and the number of exported products has fallen more for top firms. Instead, average revenue per product of top firms has increased. At the industry level, top firms are converging, but top firms within country are diverging. These facts suggest that intensified competition in international markets coexists with growing concentration among national producers. |
| Keywords: | Concentration; Firm Heterogeneity; International trade; Superstar Firms; US Imports |
| JEL: | E23 F12 F14 L11 R12 |
| Date: | 2019–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:13566&r=all |
| By: | Giorgio d'Agostino; Michele Raitano; Margherita Scarlato |
| Abstract: | Apprenticeship may provide an important opportunity to improve human capital and future earnings of young people, especially those with low levels of education. Based on new administrative data, we provide the first empirical evidence of the effect on wages and employability of the mobility across firms and economic sectors of apprentices after graduation in Italy. We use an instrumental variable approach to account for endogenous selection that is based on observed and unobserved characteristics when estimating the causal effects of mobility. Our main finding is that job switchers outside the economic sector of the training firm faced a considerable gap in wages and weeks worked in comparison to stayers in the training firm, indicating a loss of firm-specific human capital. In addition, the new apprenticeship introduced by the Biagi reform, which lessened the stringency of the norms on the training content delivered by firms, resulted in further reductions of the transferability of skills for trainees relative to the previous regime. Overall, the apprenticeship contract in Italy generated earning gaps according to the workers’ mobility after graduation,thus increasing inequality among similar employees. |
| Keywords: | Apprenticeship training, Job mobility, Wages |
| JEL: | J24 J62 J31 J38 |
| Date: | 2019–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ast:wpaper:0043&r=all |
| By: | Kaya, Ezgi (Cardiff Business School) |
| Abstract: | In this paper, we explore the role of firm segregation on the gender wage gap. Using linked employee-employer data for Turkey, we investigate whether female segregation into low-paying firms and into low-paying jobs within a firm influence the gender wage gap across the wage distribution. We find that there is a 'glass ceiling' effect in the Turkish labour market, but this effect is more apparent within a firm than between firms. We also find a 'sticky floor' effect, but only among workers employed at the same firm. Our results imply that the allocation of women into lowpaying jobs within each firm accounts for the existence of these effects more than the segregation of women into low-paying firms. |
| Keywords: | gender wage gap, segregation, within- and between-firms, glass ceiling, sticky floor |
| JEL: | C21 J31 J71 |
| Date: | 2019–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdf:wpaper:2019/7&r=all |
| By: | Sara Amoroso (European Commission – JRC); Albert N. Link (Bryan School of Business and Economics University of North Carolina-Greensboro) |
| Abstract: | Intellectual property protection mechanisms (IPPMs) are critical to fostering innovation and their relevance has grown enormously with the increased trade in goods and services involving intellectual property. Scholars have investigated what factors facilitate or hinder the use of such IP protection strategies, identifying country, sector, and firm characteristics. However, the extant literature has overlooked the role of founding team characteristics on the choice of IPPMs. Using data from a large sample of European small and young entrepreneurial firms, we show that controlling for size, R&D intensity, and other firms and market effects, the founding team characteristics such as gender and education greatly influence the choice of IPPMs. |
| Keywords: | IP choice, patents, appropriability, entrepreneurship, knowledge intensive firms, gender, AEGIS survey |
| JEL: | M13 L26 O34 |
| Date: | 2019–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ipt:wpaper:201901&r=all |
| By: | Haichao Fan; Yao Amber Li; Sichuang Xu; Stephen R. Yeaple |
| Abstract: | Modern trade models attribute the dispersion of international prices to physical and man-made barriers to trade, to the pricing-to-market by heterogeneous producers and to differences in the quality of output offered by firms. This paper presents a general equilibrium model that incorporates all three of these mechanisms. Our model allows us to confront Chinese firm-level data on the prices charged and revenues earned across markets. We show that all three mechanisms are necessary to fit the distribution of prices and revenues across firms and markets. Accounting for endogenous quality heterogeneity across markets and firms is shown to be critical for the welfare implications of trade and for the response of prices to trade and tariff shocks |
| JEL: | F1 F10 F11 F12 F14 L11 L15 |
| Date: | 2019–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:25611&r=all |
| By: | Tracey, Belinda (Bank of England) |
| Abstract: | Around 10% of European firms were in receipt of subsidized bank loans following the peak of the European sovereign debt crisis in 2011. To what extent did such forbearance lending contribute to the subsequent low output growth experienced by the euro area? In this paper, we address this question by developing a quantitative model of firm dynamics in which forbearance lending and firm defaults arise endogenously. The model provides a close approximation to key euro-area firm statistics over the period 2011 to 2014. We evaluate the impact of forbearance lending by considering a counterfactual scenario in which firms no longer have access to loan forbearance. Our key finding is that aggregate output, investment and total factor productivity are higher in the absence of forbearance lending than in the benchmark scenario that includes forbearance lending. This suggests that forbearance lending practices contributed to the low output growth across the euro area following the onset of the sovereign debt crisis. |
| Keywords: | Forbearance lending; zombie firms; firm defaults; firm dynamics |
| JEL: | G21 G32 L25 |
| Date: | 2019–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:boe:boeewp:0783&r=all |
| By: | Greer Gosnell; John List; Robert Metcalfe |
| Abstract: | Increasing evidence indicates the importance of management in determining firms' productivity. Yet, causal evidence regarding the effectiveness of management practices is scarce, especially for high-skilled workers in the developed world. In an eight-month field experiment measuring the productivity of captains in the commercial aviation sector, we test four distinct management practices: (i) performance monitoring; (ii) performance feedback; (iii) target setting; and (iv) prosocial incentives. We find that these management practices -particularly performance monitoring and target setting- significantly increase captains' productivity with respect to the targeted fuel-saving dimensions. We identify positive spillovers of the tested management practices on job satisfaction and carbon dioxide emissions, and captains overwhelmingly express desire for deeper managerial engagement. Both the implementation and the results of the study reveal an uncharted opportunity for management researchers to delve into the black box of firms and rigorously examine the determinants of productivity amongst skilled labor. |
| Date: | 2018 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:feb:framed:00666&r=all |
| By: | Cheratian, Iman; Goltabar, Saleh; Calá, Carla Daniela |
| Abstract: | Given the importance of entry promotion to prompt economic growth and promote structural transformation, this paper investigates the regional determinants of firm entry in the 30 Iranian regions, considering four different sizes -micro, small, medium and large- over 2000-2015. Using a new and unique database, we estimate panel non-spatial and spatial lag and error dependence models. We find that regional factors explain firm entry, but the impact is not homogeneous across firms of different size. We also find that most types of firms are influenced by the negative effect of economic sanctions during the sample period. Keywords: firm entry, ecological approach, spatial models, Iranian economy. |
| Keywords: | Dinámica Empresarial; Creación de Empresas; Distribución Espacial; Iran; |
| Date: | 2019–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nmp:nuland:3058&r=all |
| By: | Karin Mayr-Dorn |
| Abstract: | This paper analyses the effect of firm learning on labor market efficiency in a frictional labor market with asymmetric information. I consider a model with random matching and wage bargaining a la Pissarides (1985, 2000) where worker ability is unknown to firms at the hiring stage. Firm learning increases relative expected earnings in high-ability jobs and, thereby, enhances imitation incentives of low-ability workers. The net effect on aggregate expected match surplus and unemployment is indeterminate a priori. Numerical results show that firm learning does not increase labor market efficiency. |
| Keywords: | job search; on-the-job effort; asymmetric information; learning. |
| JEL: | D82 D83 J64 |
| Date: | 2019–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jku:econwp:2019_06&r=all |
| By: | Med Kechidi (FRAMESPA - France, Amériques, Espagne – Sociétés, pouvoirs, acteurs - UT2J - Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | The aim of this paper is to show that Airbus's success can be attributed to two types of factors. First, each new aircraft model has produced a technological breakthrough in the design and manufacturing of aircraft. Secondly, Airbus's capacity to evolve their industrial organisation model in keeping with technological transformations. In this trajectory, modularization and outsourcing policies have played major roles. In particular they play a major role in the emergence of new actors the pivot-firms. These firms have a critical position in management of technical and organizational interfaces between the architect-integrator and the firms participating in the design and production of aircrafts. |
| Keywords: | Airbus,industrial organization,innovation,modularization,outsourcing,pivot-firm,Aeronautics Industry |
| Date: | 2019–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02025656&r=all |
| By: | Kube, Roland; von Graevenitz, Kathrine; Löschel, Andreas; Massier, Philipp |
| Abstract: | Voluntary environmental management programs for firms have become an increasingly popular instrument of environmental policy. However, the literature's conclusion on the effectiveness of such programs is ambiguous, and for the European region there is a lack of evidence based on a large control group. We seek to fill this gap with an evaluation of the Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS), introduced in 1995 by the European Union as a premium certification of continuous pro-environmental efforts above regulatory minimum standards. It is more demanding than other voluntary programs due to annual public reports of the environmental performance and targets for improvements. We use official firm-level production census data on the German manufacturing sector, a major energy consumer and emitter in Europe. To account for the self-selection of firms, we combine the Coarsened Exact Matching approach with a Difference-in-Differences estimation. Our results do not suggest reductions of firms' CO2 intensity and energy intensity neither before nor after certification. Moreover, program participants do not increase renewable energy consumption or investments into the protection of the environment and climate. Our results are robust to a variety of checks and call into question the effectiveness of the EMAS program concerning these particular outcome variables. |
| Keywords: | Voluntary Environmental Programs,Firm-level Energy Behavior,Matching Difference-in-Differences |
| JEL: | Q58 Q54 Q48 |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:19004&r=all |
| By: | Saule Burkitbayeva; Emma Janssen; Johan Swinnen |
| Abstract: | The adoption of modern technologies in agriculture is crucial for improving the productivity and welfare of poor farmers in developing countries. Not much is known about how value chains do (not) affect technology transfer and/or adoption in domestic food chains in developing countries. Our paper analyzes farm-level technology adoption in the dairy chain in Punjab, India, combining quantitative panel data from representative surveys in 2008 and 2015 with data from targeted interviews with emerging modern dairy farms. Between 2008 and 2015 there were important increases in technology adoption in the form of better hygienic practices, better feed and improved livestock among traditional dairy farms. Especially those farms which lagged behind in 2008 improved their technology. However, the role of vertical coordination in value chains in stimulating technology adoption among these traditional dairy farmers seems to be minor. In contrast, we document the emergence of a group of dynamic modern dairy farms which are much larger, only use modern technology, and are fully integrated in vertically coordinated value chains which support these modern farms' management and investments. |
| Date: | 2019 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lic:licosd:41019&r=all |
| By: | Greer K. Gosnell; John A. List; Robert D. Metcalfe |
| Abstract: | Increasing evidence indicates the importance of management in determining firms’ productivity. Yet, causal evidence regarding the effectiveness of management practices is scarce, especially for high-skilled workers in the developed world. In an eight-month field experiment measuring the productivity of captains in the commercial aviation sector, we test four distinct management practices: (i) performance monitoring; (ii) performance feedback; (iii) target setting; and (iv) pro-social incentives. We find that these management practices—particularly performance monitoring and target setting—significantly increase captains’ productivity with respect to the targeted fuel-saving dimensions. We identify positive spillovers of the tested management practices on job satisfaction and carbon dioxide emissions, and captains overwhelmingly express desire for deeper managerial engagement. Both the implementation and the results of the study reveal an uncharted opportunity for management researchers to delve into the black box of firms and rigorously examine the determinants of productivity amongst skilled labor. |
| JEL: | C93 D01 J3 Q5 R4 |
| Date: | 2019–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:25620&r=all |
| By: | Maria Bas (Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne Author-Workplace-Homepage: https://centredeconomiesorbonne.univ-paris1.fr); Caroline Paunov (OECD, Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation) |
| Abstract: | This paper investigates the distributional impacts of trade liberalization across firms, consumers and workers. Using firm-product-level census data for Ecuador, we exploit exogenous tariff changes at entry to the World Trade Organization. We show that with input tariff cuts firms access higher quality and new input varieties. Consequently, firms increase their product scope and quality, while their production's skill-intensity increases and costs decrease. “Real” productivity (TFPG) increases only in the medium run, following adjustments to produce more and higher quality products. Positive immediate revenue productivity (TFPR) gains result because firms' markups increase. Consumers still gain as quality-adjusted prices decrease and varieties increase. Workers benefit differentially: skilled workers' wages rise compared to less skilled worker's wages. Input-tariff liberalization also has distributional impacts across firms. Only more productive firms with high markups increase product scope and quality and gain market shares. With output-trade liberalization the least productive firms decrease their product scope |
| Keywords: | gains from trade; input and output tariff reductions; product scope; product quality; market share; quantity and revenue total factor productivity (TFPQ, TFPR); skill premium; markups; price; foreign inputs quality and variety; firm-product-level data; Ecuador |
| JEL: | F16 O30 D22 O12 O54 L6 |
| Date: | 2019–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mse:cesdoc:19003&r=all |