We provide evidence indicating that countries with well-developed social security systems do not necessarily face a trade-off between social spending and competitiveness. On average, countries that spend a lot on social needs score well in the competitiveness league. We investigate the...

We study the effects of Chinese import exposure in the US on self-reported health measures. We find that average mental, physical, and general health worsens in local labor markets exposed to greater import competition between 2000 and 2007. The effects are greatest for mental health. Moving a...

Occupational health is an important determinant of workers’ welfare. Our theory predicts that firms facing greater shutdown risk reallocate resources to improve productivity at the expense of safety. Therefore, safety worsens at firms facing greater shutdown risk due to import competition. We...

We investigate the effects of Chinese import competition on transitions into and out of employment using comparable worker-level data for 14 European countries. Our results indicate that, on average, Chinese imports are associated with an increased probability that employed workers become...

The protracted recession in the euro area will continue to be a drag on the economic growth of most CESEE countries in 2013. By and large, those countries are small open economies held hostage to the excessive fiscal austerity pursued in the euro area and the sluggish progress on the part of its...

We investigate the impact of the emergence of China as a global competitor on the trade performance of Central, Eastern and Southeastern European (CESEE) countries at the EU-15 market. The paper takes a comprehensive approach in terms of empirical methods and data. We analyze export growth,...

We investigate the impact of the emergence of China as a global competitor on the trade performance of Central, Eastern and Southeastern European (CESEE) countries at the EU-15 market, i.e. the fifteen EU members as of 1995. The paper takes a comprehensive approach in terms of empirical methods...

We contribute to the question of why some countries are more attractive for foreign direct investment (FDI) than others by constructing a composite measure that describes a host country's attractiveness for receiving FDI. This index considers all identified major, measurable and, for our scope,...

We investigate the impact of China as a global competitor on the trade performance of the ten Central, Eastern and Southeastern European EU Member States (CESEE-10) in the EU-15 market. The paper takes a comprehensive approach as we analyze export growth, export market shares, extensive and...

This paper investigates the trade competitiveness of the new emerging Southern economies – China, India, Brazil and South Africa (CIBS) – with respect to their main global partners. Starting from the commonly held view that countries with trade patterns similar to those of emerging countries...