We use Belgian manufacturing firm-level data over the period 1996-2007 to analyze the impact of imports from different origins on firm growth, exit, and skill upgrading. For this purpose we use both industry-level and firm-level imports by country of origin and distinguish between firm-level...

We study the role of contract enforcement in shaping the dynamics of international trade at the firm level. We develop a theoretical model to describe how agents build reputations to overcome the problems created by weak enforcement of international contracts. We find that, all else equal,...

Using micro data for Belgium we investigate the relationship between occupational tasks changes and the rise of service trade. We focus the analysis on the extensive margin and look at the heterogeneous proliferation of firms involved in exports and imports of services across sectors...

<em>Industry reallocations in a globalizing economy</em> - We present the main insights from recent developments in New Trade Theory (NTT) on firms’ responses to globalisation and their implications for the reallocation of resources across firms and countries. In so doing, we do not want to propose a...