Import Diversion under European Antidumping Policy

This paper studies empirically the effects of European antidumping cases on trade diversion from importers named in an antidumping investigation, to countries not named in the investigation. For this purpose we use a unique data set at the 8-digit product level. The amount of import diversion can be regarded as an indication of the effectiveness of antidumping policy. We find that trade diversion in the European Union caused by antidumping actions—in contrast to the United States—is limited, suggesting that the European Union's antidumping policy is more effective in keeping imports out. This result holds even after controlling for selection bias in the antidumping investigation procedure. A number of explanations for this difference in trade diversion as a result of antidumping policy between the European Union and United States are formulated.     

Gross job flows and the evolution of size in U.K. establishments

This paper analyzes a relationship between establishment size and gross job creation and destruction in the U.K. during the 1980's. I find that the gross job creation rate is highest in small plants and lowest in large ones. In contrast, the gross job destruction rate is lowest in small plants and highest in large ones. In absolute numbers, however, large plants create, but also destroy most jobs. I test convergence in plant size by computing Markov transition matrices. The advantage of this approach is that it avoids Galton's fallacy of regression towards the mean and that it reflects job creation and destruction between size classes. I find no evidence of convergence, hence no regression towards the mean.This paper benefitted from seminars at the London School of Economics and Trinity College, Dublin. I thank A. Lamo, R. Koopmans, A. Manning, A. Oswald, C. Pissarides, D. Quah, H. Vandenbussche and an anonymous referee for helpful comments and discussions. All errors are mine.     

Gross job flows in Ukraine

This paper documents and analyses gross job flows and their determinants in Ukraine using a dataset of more than 2200 Ukrainian firms operating in manufacturing and non‐manufacturing for the years 1998–2000. Job destruction dominates job creation in both 1999 and 2000. Another clear‐cut result of our analysis is the strong positive effect of new private firms on net employment growth. We also find an inverse relationship between job reallocation and size for both manufacturing and non‐manufacturing, while only in the latter sector is employment growth inversely related with size. The main focus of the paper is the effect of trade flows on employment adjustment in manufacturing. Our results show that both employment growth and job reallocation at the firm and two‐digit sector level are affected by strong exposure to import competition and product market competition in export markets. These effects are more pronounced when we consider trade flows to the world at large and to the EU than when the analysis is based on trade flows to the CIS. JEL Classifications: E24, F14, J63, P23.     

The Effect of E-Business on Corporate Performance: Firm Level Evidence for Belgium

E-business offers buyers and sellers a new form of communication and provides an opportunity to create new marketplaces. In general it is suggested that the development of e-business results in higher firm productivity and efficiency as a result of lower search and transaction costs. However, there are a number of recent studies, which demonstrate that firms engaging in e-commerce need not perform better compared to more traditional enterprises. To date, there is little empirical evidence on the impact of information technology on corporate performance. This paper is the first that uses a large representative data set of Belgian firms to study empirically the impact of e-business on productivity and cost efficiency of firms. Our main conclusions can be summarised as follows: (1) The penetration of the Internet in Belgian firms is high; however, the use of e-business is still limited. (2) It is especially the large firms that engage in e-business and mostly in e-procurement. (3) E-business has no effect on total factor productivity in small firms; however, we find positive effects on performance of e-business in large firms.     

The effect of globalization on union bargaining and price-cost margins of firms

In recent years, Europe has witnessed an accelerated process of economic integration. This paper analyzes how increased economic integration has affected labor and product markets. We use a panel of Belgian manufacturing firms to estimate price-cost margins and union bargaining power and show how various measures of globalization affect them. Import competition puts pressure on both markups and union bargaining power, especially when there is increased competition from low wage countries. This suggests that increased globalization is associated with a moderation of wage claims in unionized countries, which should be associated with positive effects on employment.

The Impact of Product Market Competition on Employment Determination in Unionised and Non-Unionised Firms: Firm Level Evidence for the U.K.

In this paper we investigate the effect of increasedcompetition on employment inunionised andnon-unionised firms. We model product and labourmarket imperfections, and their interactions, in Nashequilibrium. The model predicts that employment lossin unionised firms in the face of increasedcompetition will be lower compared with non-unionisedfirms. This paradoxical outcome results from anoffsetting beneficial employment effect ofcompetition, which eliminates wage mark-ups inunionised firms. We find empirical support for thetheoretical prediction using U.K. firm level data overthe period 1985–1989.     

Antidumping protection hurts exporters: firm-level evidence

This paper estimates the impact of antidumping protection on export behavior of French firms covered by antidumping cases. Traditional models suggest that all domestic firms covered by antidumping protection should benefit from protection. However, in an environment of globally fragmented supply chains, firms may be damaged by protection if duties increase input costs for firms covered by the protection. Results from this paper indicate that while non-exporting firms benefit from protection, domestic sales of export-oriented firms and exports in general, are depressed due to protection. This effect is more severe for multinational firms.     

Import Churning and Export Performance of Multi‐product Firms

This paper analyses the impact of churning in the imported varieties of capital and intermediate inputs on firm export scope and productivity. Using detailed data on imports and exports at the firm‐product‐market level, we document substantial churning in both imports and exports for Slovenian manufacturing firms in the period 1994–2008. On average, a firm changes about one‐quarter of imported and exported product‐markets every year, while gross churning in terms of added and dropped product‐markets is almost three times higher. A substantial share of this product churning is due to simultaneous imports and exports of firms in identical varieties within the same CN‐8 product code (so called pass‐on‐trade). We find that churning in imported varieties is far more important than reduction in tariffs or declines in import prices for firms’ productivity growth and increased export product scope. We also find gross churning has a bigger impact on firm productivity improvements by a factor of more than 10 in comparison with net churning. Both adding and dropping of imported input varieties thus seem to be of utmost importance for firms aiming to optimise their input mix towards their most valuable inputs. These effects are further enhanced when excluding simultaneous trade in identical varieties, suggesting that pass‐on‐trade has less favourable effects on firms’ long‐run performance than regular trade.     

Staying Home or Moving Away? Restructuring Efforts within Multinational Enterprises

This paper analyses the impact of geographic dispersion on employment changes within multinationals. Building on earlier work of Landier et al. (2009, Review of Financial Studies 22, 3: 1119), we investigate whether corporate decision‐making within a multinational is affected by the distance between an affiliate and its headquarter. Our findings suggest a detrimental impact of distance on employees, by either an increased likelihood of observing a downsizing event, or by witnessing a larger decrease in the number of employees at distant locations during downsizing events. In addition, our results seem to relate the higher likelihood of observing a downsizing event to the role of social factors on decision making. The more visible a manager is in his community, the less likely he is to downsize proximate divisions.