An influential literature has documented large differences across countries and industries in terms of product quality. It is important to understand the determinants of these differences, because the production of high-quality goods influences key aspects of economic performance. In this paper,...

Product quality plays a key role in economics, but differs markedly across countries and industries. What are the determinants and implications of this pattern? In this paper, we test an explanation for the large heterogeneity in product quality that rests on the interplay between cross-country...

We study the relationship between new imported inputs and the introduction of new domestic products. To this purpose, we assemble a novel data set covering 25 European countries over 1995–2007 and containing information on domestic production and bilateral trade for the universe of goods. We...

This paper examines the impact of international trade on firm entry and exit in Europe. The results point to strong displacement exit and less creative replacement entry in industries characterized by increasing import competition Moreover, the evidence suggests strong selection and higher entry...

This paper investigates the impact of real exchange rate movements on job reallocation at the industry level. The analysis focuses on the manufacturing sector of Belgium, using data for 82 NACE 3-digit industries, over the time span 1996–2002. I find that real exchange rate changes do have a...

We exploit the census of Romanian firms to provide a microfounded analysis of the sources of regional disparities in the country. To this extent, we adapt to the regional case a decomposition of firm-level output dynamics based on semi-parametric productivity estimates. The methodology, robust...

This paper examines the impact of globalisation, by means of growing international trade, on firm entry and exit at the industry level. The analysis is carried on the manufacturing industries of eight European countries, over the period 1997–2003. Our main findings suggest important...

The effects of increasing import competition on the exit of heterogeneous domestic fi?rms are investigated, both at the theoretical and empirical level. Within the context of an oligopolistic rivalry model, marginal cost fl?exibility and product differentiation with respect to the imported goods...