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on International Activities of Firms |
| By: | Chung, Wanyu; Elliott, Robert; Han, Yangjun; Navas, Antonio |
| Abstract: | Administrative barriers to trade such as customs procedures are well-documented sources of delays and costs in cross-border commerce, often prompting firms to outsource these tasks to specialist customs agents. This paper examines the role of customs agents in a key global trade facilitation policy—the Authorized Economic Operator Mutual Recognition Agreement (AEO-MRA)—which enables certified traders to benefit from simplified customs procedures with partner countries. Focusing on the 2012 EU-US AEO-MRA, and using UK transaction-level customs data from HMRC that uniquely identify the AEO status of agents filing on behalf of firms, we document the widespread use of customs agents in UK exports. Guided by a theoretical framework, we show that non-certified firms benefited indirectly from the policy through certified agents, leading to more US market entry, fewer product exits, and higher export values. These findings highlight the role of intermediaries in extending the reach of trade facilitation and offer timely evidence to inform policy design in an era of rising administrative frictions. |
| JEL: | F13 F14 |
| Date: | 2025–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:20482 |
| By: | Zou, Tao; Gong, Yundan |
| Abstract: | We study how third-country supply chains reconfigure under the 2018-2019 US tariff escalation on Chinese goods, using comprehensive transaction-level trade and domestic business-to-business records for firms in Vietnam. Exploiting exogenous variation in firm-level tariff exposure constructed from pre-treatment export portfolios, we find that both value-added processing and transshipment contribute to triangular trade through Vietnam, but activate on distinct timelines: transshipment responds immediately while processing activates mainly after the May 2019 escalation signals tariff permanence. Supply chain network adjustment precedes trade value expansion, with upstream Chinese supplier diversification beginning first, local intermediate sourcing activating later, and downstream US buyer adjusting last. Opening the third-country supply chain interior, we show that over half of the tariff-induced local sourcing expansion channels Chinese intermediate content, and that local sourcing from China-embedded local suppliers responds at 3.2 times the magnitude of independent local suppliers. These results indicate that global value chains relocation to Vietnam activated processing capacity but extended rather than displaced Chinese supply chain influence in the third country. |
| Keywords: | trade war;supply chain reconfiguration;local sourcing;Vietnam |
| JEL: | F13 F14 F23 L14 |
| Date: | 2026–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:139083 |
| By: | Egorov, Konstantin; Korovkin, Vasily; Makarin, Alexey; Nigmatulina, Dzhamilya |
| Abstract: | How effective are trade sanctions? We examine the economic impact of the unprecedented sanctions imposed on Russia following February 2022, when Western countries banned exports accounting for 36% of Russia's prewar import value. Combining novel, manually collected records of these sanctions with Russian customs data, firm balance sheets, domestic railway shipments, and government procurement contracts, we provide the most comprehensive analysis to date of the economic impact of trade sanctions on a target country. Using a difference-in-differences approach, we find that imports of sanctioned country-product varieties into Russia saw a sharp 62% decline following the war's onset. While we see substantial rerouting through third countries, it has not fully offset the direct import losses: total imports of sanctioned products fell by 27% through 2023. We find that Russian firms that had relied on soon-to-be-sanctioned imports experienced a 14% decline in output during the same period; we also observe similar declines for manufacturing and technology firms, and firms along the military supply chain. Affected firms have also experienced reduced government procurement sales and incurred additional losses when their buyers or suppliers were exposed to sanctions. Overall, our findings suggest that, contrary to widespread claims of ineffectiveness, import sanctions on Russia have had far-reaching adverse effects. |
| JEL: | D22 D74 F14 F51 H56 |
| Date: | 2025–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:20601 |
| By: | Ali, Nadia; De Giorgi, Giacomo; Rahman, Aminur; Verhoogen, Eric |
| Abstract: | Many countries seek to promote exports by subsidizing market access, but evidence on such efforts has been mixed. We present the first randomized evaluation of a government financial-support program explicitly targeting exports, the Tasdir+ program in Tunisia. The program offered matching grants for fixed market-access costs but not variable costs. Tracking outcomes in administrative data, we find positive effects on exports on average. We find limited impacts on the number of destinations or exported products, which were stated policy targets. The finding that the fixed-cost subsidies expanded exports on the intensive margin but not the extensive margins of destinations or products stands in contrast to the predictions of several workhorse trade models. |
| Keywords: | Trade; Randomized control trial |
| JEL: | O1 F1 |
| Date: | 2025–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:20398 |
| By: | Liu, Xueyue; Liu, Yu; Makarin, Alexey; Wen, Jaya |
| Abstract: | This paper studies how Chinese firms responded to the 2007 U.S. "China Military Catch-All Rule, '' which restricted exports of dual-use products with military applications. By comparing sanctioned goods to those that were just excluded from the policy, we estimate firm-level effects on imports, R&D, and patenting. Treated firms sharply reduced imports of controlled products and increased innovation activity: R&D spending rose by 49.1%, patenting by 41.3%, and the number of active inventors by 30.4%. Patenting in related technologies increased by 65.1% and patents on other topics increased by 41.6%, indicating a broad innovation response rather than one narrowly focused on replacing restricted inputs. We also examine domestic suppliers of controlled goods and find that their innovation increased, but was concentrated in patent applications related to the restricted products, which more than quadrupled. Taken together, these results suggest that a key unintended consequence of export controls is their potential to accelerate innovation in the sanctioned economy. |
| Keywords: | Export controls; Sanctions; Innovation; China; Geoeconomics |
| JEL: | F13 F14 D22 |
| Date: | 2025–09 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:20690 |
| By: | Biermann, Marcus; Huber, Kilian |
| Abstract: | We show that multinational firms transmit shocks across countries through their internal capital markets. We study a credit supply shock to parent firms in Germany. International affiliates outside Germany supported their parents through internal lending, became financially constrained themselves, and experienced lower real growth. We find that managers were “Darwinist†with respect to international affiliates but “Socialist†in the home country, that internal capital markets transmitted the credit shock more strongly than a nonfinancial shock, and that access to developed credit markets attenuated the real effects. The total real impact of shock transmission through multinationals on foreign economies was large. |
| Keywords: | Multinational firms; Banking crisis; Internal capital markets |
| JEL: | F2 F3 G2 G01 D2 E44 |
| Date: | 2025–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:20336 |
| By: | Joonkyo Hong, Davide Luparello |
| Abstract: | New exporters often adopt new technology, which may reorganize production rather than lift output uniformly, so efficiency gains can land unevenly across inputs. We examine such gains across worker types in Colombian manufacturing, 1981–1991. We develop a model of exporters that measures how efficiently firms use each input and grounds a comparison of new exporters with non-exporters matched on export likelihood. We find that export entry raises the plant-level efficiency of unskilled labor by about 9.4% per year, with no detectable change for skilled labor, implying a 2% annual rise in total factor productivity. We estimate that the two worker types are complements. Exporters thus produce more with relatively less unskilled labor, raising skill intensity. |
| Keywords: | exporting; factor-biased technical change; production-function estimation; skill intensity. |
| JEL: | D24 F14 O33 J24 |
| Date: | 2026 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:baf:cbafwp:cbafwp26279 |
| By: | Javorcik, Beata; Lo Turco, Alessia; Maggioni, Daniela; Santoni, Gianluca |
| Abstract: | One in nine workers worldwide experiences a non-fatal occupational accident, with nearly 750, 000 French workers missing multiple workdays due to work-related injuries in 2003 alone. As multinational firms emphasize their superior management practices and ESG commitments, this study investigates whether foreign ownership enhances workplace safety. Using detailed plant-level data from France (2003–2017) and applying recent event study techniques to the full data as well as a matched sample, it finds that foreign acquisitions improve worker safety by reducing accident rates, the proportion of injured employees, and the share of lost workdays. These benefits are primarily driven by a decline in major accidents among blue-collar workers. The safety improvements coincide with post-acquisition organisational changes within the plant and the firm, including a higher ratio of hours worked by technical middle managers relative to blue-collar workers, an increase in organisational layers, a greater presence of expatriates in middle and top management and enhanced worker training. |
| JEL: | F23 F61 I10 J21 |
| Date: | 2025–07 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:20470 |