This paper analyzes empirically the effect of spatial agglomeration of activities on plant-level productivity, using French firm and plant-level data from 1996 to 2004. We exploit short-run variations of variables by making use of GMM estimation. This allows us to control for endogeneity biases...

This paper analyzes empirically a public policy promoting industrial clusters in France. Cluster policies have become popular in many countries but have not been extensively evaluated. We propose in this paper the first quantitative evaluation of a cluster policy exploiting firm-level data. We...

This paper analyses theoretically and empirically the relationship between trade and war. We show that the intuition that trade promotes peace is only partially true even in a model where trade is beneficial to all, war reduces trade and leaders take into account the costs of war. When war can...

Le commerce international n'est pas toujours un facteur de pacification des relations entre les pays. Certes, si deux pays commercent davantage de manière bilatérale, ils sont plus fortement incités à résoudre pacifiquement le conflit qui peut les opposer. Mais s'ils commercent davantage...

Le 12 juillet 2005, le gouvernement a labellisé 67 « pôles de compétitivité » ou clusters. Ils sont aujourd'hui au nombre de 71. La politique d'aménagement du territoire est passée d'une intervention publique destinée à aider les régions en difficulté à une politique visant à...

We analyze the interaction of economic and political determinants of free trade agreements (FTA). In addition to standard trade gains, FTAs can promote peaceful relations by offering a political forum and by increasing the opportunity cost of conflicts that disrupt trade. If policy makers...

The development of clusters of economic activity is an important feature of industrial policy. Industry clusters have long fascinated economists and geographers alike, the most renowned being Silicon Valley which is seen by many as the blueprint for regional development, innovation, and growth....

This paper analyzes empirically the relationship between civil wars and international trade. We first show that trade destruction due to civil wars is very large and persistent and increases with the severity of the conflict. We then identify two effects that trade can have on the risk of civil...