Belgium's 2016 payroll tax exemption for first-time employers triggered a sharp increase in firms hiring their first worker but little growth among larger firms. To account for this pattern, we develop and estimate a directed search model - with discrete hiring, firm heterogeneity, and...

imely assessment of regional economic activity in Ukraine is severely constrained by institutional and data-related limitations. Official regional gross regional product (GRP) statistics are available only at low frequency, are published with substantial delays, and, in the post-2022 period, are...

Platforms that provide product recommendations to consumers, such as marketplaces like Amazon or online travel agencies like Expedia, govern a substantial part of transactions in many markets. In addition to selling via platforms, most firms, however, also operate a direct channel. This paper...

The tax and transfer system partially insures households against individual income risk. We build a framework to assess the size and (welfare) value of this partial insurance, which is based on exploiting distributional differences between household gross income and disposable income. Our...

The use of advanced technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics, or smart devices will go hand in hand with, among others, higher productivity, higher product quality, more exports and better chances to survive any crisis. Better firms tend to use advanced technologies. Information on...