| 1. |
- Molla, Kiflu Gedefe, 1978-
(författare)
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Essays in International trade, exchange rates and prices
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis consists of three self-contained essays in International Trade, Exchange Rates and Prices. Although independent, these essays share some common themes. The first two papers can be related to the vast literature on exchange rate pass-through to prices. While the first paper uses firm-product level data from Sweden to study firms’ export price response to movements in exchange rate, the second paper employs aggregate level data from Ethiopia and looks at the issue from the importers’ perspective. The third paper, like the first paper, uses Swedish firm-level data and investigates firms’ exporting behavior. The third paper, however, specifically focuses on export margins of multi-product firms and studies their response when exporting to destinations of different size and distance from the home country.
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| 2. |
- Ferguson, Shon, 1979-
(författare)
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Essays on Trade, Technology and the Organization of Firms
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- "Endogenous Sunk Costs, Exporting and Heterogeneous Firms" Empirical evidence shows that R&D spending is highly correlated with firm productivity and highly concentrated among large firms. This paper develops a model of quality competition with heterogeneous firms that can explain these patterns. The model makes two new predictions. The first prediction is that exporters upgrade while domestic firms downgrade when trade liberalizes. The second prediction is that quality competition reduces the effect of trade liberalization along the extensive margin. "Endogenous Product Differentiation, Market Size and Trade" Recent empirical evidence suggests that average export prices are higher when firms sell in large markets. This paper offers a theoretical explanation for why we do not always see pro-competitive market size effects in the trade data for differentiated goods. The model here proposes that export prices can in fact be higher in larger countries because firms have greater incentive to differentiate their products, which increases price-cost markups. In the two-country case the model predicts that larger countries sell manufacturing goods at higher price-cost markups than smaller countries. "Institution-Driven Comparative Advantage, Complex Goods and Organizational Choice" The theory of the firm suggests that firms can respond to poor contract enforcement by vertically integrating their production process. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether firms' integration opportunities affect the way institutions determine international trade patterns. We find that vertical integration lessens the impact of a country's ability to enforce contracts on the comparative advantage of complex goods. We also find that countries with good financial institutions export disproportionately more in sectors that produce complex goods and that have a high propensity for vertical integration.
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| 3. |
- Pateli, Evangelia, 1983-
(författare)
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Essays on International Trade : Theory and Evidence on the Determinants and Implications of Firms' Import Behaviour
- 2018
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis aspires to further contribute to our understanding of both the determinants as well as the implications of intermediate goods trade. Faced with intensifying global competition, firms are increasingly developing their production process and their sourcing strategies beyond national borders in order to take advantage of lower costs, superior quality and technological advances.In the first two chapters, I analyse firm-level import decisions in an environment allowing for unintentional exchanges of import-relevant information between firms. I build on the idea that any import-specific knowledge acquired by established importers, in a given region/industry, spills over to prospective importers lowering the costs associated with entry in international markets for intermediates. Chapter 1, using firm-level import data on the universe of Swedish firms, at the product level and by source market for the period 1998-2011, provides evidence for the existence of import spillovers and offers insights into the mechanisms through which they operate. Chapter 2, sets out a theoretical framework formalising import spillovers and their implications for the firm’s import behaviour and for consumer welfare.In the third and last chapter of this thesis, I turn to intermediate import dependence with an aim to explain the lack of sensitivity of trade flows to exchange rate movements. I propose a tractable framework and study how real devaluations affect firm-level export decisions and export performance, as well as aggregate exports and welfare in an environment where final goods production uses both domestic and imported intermediates.
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| 4. |
- Sanctuary, Mark, 1972-
(författare)
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Essays on trade and environment
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The thesis comprises four essays examining aspects of international trade and environment."Border carbon adjustments (BCAs) and Strategic Climate Policy" examines how BCA affects government incentives to regulate emissions and trade in a strategic setting and contrasts the impact of a BCA and a tariff: the distinction being that the level of the BCA is a function of the difference in the trade partner's emission taxes whereas the tariff is not. I show that a BCA leverages the exporter's climate policy provided the exporter has little influence over world prices (i.e. export supply elasticity is large) and has a weak climate policy."How does the price of electricity affect imports? A study of Swedish manufacturing firms" examines the heterogeneous effects of a domestic electricity price increase on the structure of imports. We identify the magnitude of the impact of the electricity price increase on the structure of firm imports. Our findings agree with the predictions of our theoretical model."Trade, Transboundary Pollution and Market Size" suggests a new set of theoretical reasons that may help reconcile the contradictory empirical evidence of the impact of trade liberalization on the location of production to countries with weaker pollution policy. Our results suggest that relative market size, the level of trade costs, the ease of abatement, and the degree of product differentiation at the sector level are relevant variables for empirical studies on trade and pollution.Market shares for organic products are typically modest. Yet several consumer surveys find that a majority of respondents would buy substantially more of these products even if they cost more. "What’s holding it back? A study in organic retail coffee purchases" explores reasons for this apparent divergence. The results suggest that the limited overlap between organic and other highly-valued characteristics is one of the most important constraints.
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| 5. |
- Sheard, Nicholas, 1979-
(författare)
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Regional Economics, Trade, and Transport Infrastructure
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- “Regional Policy in a Multiregional Setting: When the Poorest are Hurt by Subsidies” Regional subsidies have a positive short-term effect on the recipient regions, but as they alter migration patterns the long-term effects are less clear. This paper demonstrates using a three-region general equilibrium model that subsidising the poorest region may be to its detriment in the long term and thereby increase inter-regional inequality, if the subsidy draws firms from a nearby region that would function better as a production centre. The result has important implications for the design of regional policies, which are often applied simply according to per-capita incomes. “Learning to Export and the Timing of Entry to Export Markets” Standard trade models are essentially static and do not explain why entry to export markets would be delayed after the instant a firm is formed. This paper proposes a model that endogenously generates the timing of entry to new markets through a learning mechanism. Firms in the model gain experience by entering markets, which eases entry to subsequent markets. The mechanism motivates delays in entry to some markets. More productive firms are less sensitive to the learning effect and thus enter markets sooner and begin by exporting to larger markets. These predictions are confirmed using Swedish firm-level data. “Airports and the Production of Goods and Services” This paper estimates the effects of airport infrastructure on local employment in certain sectors, using data from the United States. Airport sizes are instrumented for using the 1944 National Airport Plan of the Civil Aeronautics Administration. Airport size is found to have a positive effect on local employment in tradable services, with an elasticity of approximately 0.1, and a negative effect on manufacturing. There is no measurable effect on non-tradable services. The results are relevant to the evaluation of airport improvement projects, which are often carried out using public funds.
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| 6. |
- Wiberg, Magnus, 1971-
(författare)
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Essays on the Political Economy of Protection and Industrial Location
- 2006
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis consists of three essays in the fields of the political economy of international trade.Location Equilibrium with Endogenous Rent Seeking:This paper analyzes the location of manufacturing activities when regional policy is determined by endogenous rent seeking. Once lobbying for government transfers to regions is included in an economic geography framework with size asymmetries, the standard prediction that the larger region becomes the core when trade barriers are reduced no longer holds. The establishment of manufacturing production in the economically smaller region is increasing in the level of regional integration once trade becomes freer than a certain threshold value. When free trade prevails, the relocation of industry takes place up to the point where there are as many firms operating in the South as in the North. Furthermore, lobbying slows down the agglomeration process, whereas the home market magnification effect (Baldwin, 2000) becomes weaker.Endogenous Tariff Formation and the Political Economy of Trade Retaliation:This paper extends the notion of endogenous tariff formation under representative democracy by allowing for strategic interaction between governments. The model developed suggests that the ideological distribution in the electorate within a country affects the tariff setting behavior among its trading partners. The equilibrium tariffs in a country depend on the trade policy preferences of the ideologically neutral voters among such partners as well as on the distribution of their sector-specific factor ownership. Ideological shifts in the population which systematically alter the political power of different voter groups, or types of factor owners, in one country thus influence the tariff setting behavior in competing trading nations.On the Indeterminacy of Trade Policy under Different Electoral Rules:Current research has found ambiguous results with respect to the effects of the type of electoral regime on trade policy. The present paper proposes a solution to this indeterminacy. It is shown that the equilibrium level of trade protection can be relatively higher, as well as lower, under a majoritarian electoral rule compared to proportional representation. The framework developed in this paper thus includes as special cases earlier models reported in the literature. The equilibrium outcome is shown to depend on the number of voters in swing districts who own a factor specific to the exporting industry in relation to those who possess claims to the specific input employed by the import-competing sector. Using a cross section of countries, empirical evidence is consistent with this hypothesis.
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| 7. |
- Åhlén, Sara, 1977-
(författare)
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Firms, Employment and Distance: Essays on the Swedish Regional Economy
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis consists of three essays on the spatial relationships of economic activities in Swedish regions."Governmental Interventions and Market Potential - Determinants of Regional Variations in Firm Births"This paper examines determinants of regional variations in Swedish firm births over the period 1992-2002. I examine the role of self-employment grants, regional policy payments and market potential in a fixed effects regression model. Aggregate sector level regressions show that both self-employment grants and market potential have positive effects on firm birth. Regional policy effects are instead insignificant. The results are not sensitive to how we choose to define a new firm but differ between sectors when we introduce data on a disaggregated sector level."Which Economic Structures Foster Job Growth?"This paper is an empirical evaluation of how spatial structures affect dynamic externalities and their implication for job growth in different sectors. A model including local economic variables, natural advantages and unobserved regional differences is used to identify the underlying reasons for Swedish employment concentrations between the years 1993 and 2004. The relationship between economic structures and local labor growth is investigated in a municipality setting in order to capture labor transfers and spillovers with limited geographical reach. Special focus is given to the importance of municipal diversity, specialization and market potential. Sectoral regressions are executed in two steps; first by examining structures within the own region and then by including close municipalities to also account for spatial effects."How Good an Approximation to Actual Distance is Crow Distance?"This paper examines the importance of how distance is measured. I use a Swedish data set of distance between municipalities and compare four different location and distance collecting methods which are all used in empirical analysis. The first two data sets are given as crow distance between locations and differ in the way we choose to impose a municipality center. I also introduce two journey based distance approaches; shortest road travel distance and travel time. The focus of the paper is to investigate whether the latter more detailed distance data makes a difference to economic empirical research on market potential and regional wage differences. I start the study with an examination of distance differences and continue with an analysis of the impact of distance on total market access measurements. The impact of the different measures is also investigated in a simple wage equation. Due to great data similarities in both market potential and throughout all regressions, I conclude there to be no strong case for not using a simple crow distance measure in this type of regional analysis.
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| 8. |
- Åkerman, Anders, 1977-
(författare)
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Essays on International Trade, Productivity and Firm Heterogeneity
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The thesis consists of three papers, summarized as follows.”Trade, Intra-Industry Reallocations and Aggregate Productivity: A Bridge between Theory and Data in Öresund”The paper aims at estimating the causal effect of trade liberalisation on aggregate productivity through firm selection as in Melitz (2003). The natural experiment used is the construction of a bridge in the year 2000 across the Öresund Strait linking Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, with Malmö, the third largest city in Sweden. Substantial, though not entirely conclusive, evidence is found for the model. Firms based in Malmö raise their exports substantially, mainly by firms selecting into exporting. There is also an increase in the aggregate productivity in Malmö and this is mostly due to the reallocation of production from less productive to more productive firms.”Country Size, Productivity and Trade Share Convergence: An Analysis of Heterogenous Firms and Country Size Dependent Beachhead Costs”This paper introduces a market size dependent firm entry cost in the Melitz (2003) model, which leads to several new predictions that are in line with the data. Exporters as well as non-exporters based in a large market are, on average, more productive than those based in a smaller market. Moreover, as the fixed entry cost of exporters into each market declines, for instance as the result of economic integration, export shares converge. This result is supported by the empirical part of this paper. Finally, we use a multicountry version of our model to derive a gravity equation.”Industry Location in Export Processing Zones with Vertical Linkages and Agglomeration”This paper provides a rationale for the common use of Export Processing Zones (EPZs) in third world countries, as an alternative to liberalising foreign trade for all regions. Using a model from the New Economic Geography literature with vertically linked industries (to account for the fact that EPZ industry is typically characterised by the assembly of intermediate goods), I analyse the effect of an EPZ policy on the location of industry.
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| 9. |
- Pavlos, Petroulas, 1972-
(författare)
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International Capital Flows : Effects, Defects and Possibilities
- 2004
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Short-Term Capital Flows and Growth in Developed and Emerging Markets: A lot of attention has been directed towards recent financial crises. Empirical studies have found that short-term flows increase financial fragility and also increase the probability of financial crises. This study takes a macro-oriented approach and shows that large and volatile short-term flows may be growth inhibiting for emerging markets, while no effect is apparent for rich countries. The results in this study indicate that opening up emerging markets capital accounts, which implies increased short-term capital flows, is not a clear-cut way to prosperity.Macroeconomic Effects of Capital Controls on Short-Term Inflows: The financial turbulence of the last decade has led to a reanimated interest in capital controls as means to reduce volatile capital flows and exchange rate movements in emerging markets. A theoretical framework is set up where the effects on the return to capital, due to a tax on short-term capital inflows, are incorporated into a modified Dornbush model. Empirical findings in the form of GARCH and VAR estimations corroborate the theoretical assumptions and predictions of this simplified open economy model, when it comes to real and nominal exchange rates, interest rates and prices.The Effect of the Euro on Foreign Direct Investment: The recent effect of the European Monetary Union on inward FDI-flows is examined here. We use a difference-in-differences approach and fixed effects with common time controls. The estimated results of the latter approach show that the introduction of the Euro raises inward FDI by 17 percent within the Euro-area and by 9 and 12 percent to and from non-member countries respectively. Moreover the geographical effects of the Euro are explored. The results show partial agglomeration tendencies for the euro area. There are also some indications of increased importance of vertical specialization in the sample.
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