The post-war growth experience of developing countries is characterised by three main features. Firstly, enormous divergence between the best and worst performers. Secondly, low persistence in growth rates across time, and finally a general decline in the average growth rate across all...

This paper exploits exogenous features of the 1960s/70s container revolution to estimate the impact of the introduction of refrigerated containers (or reefers) on new trade of temperature sensitive products. Our identification strategy is justified by a historical narrative which suggests that...

This paper attempts to explain the level and dynamics of firm level productivity through a model of convergence, for UK service sector firms over the period 1988 to 1998. Firms of different characteristics have different productivity levels and rates of catch-up. We find strong evidence to...

Exporting involves sunk costs, so some firms export while others do not. This proposition derives from a number of models of firm behaviour and has been exposed to microeconometric analysis. Evidence from the latter suggests that exporting firms are generally more productive than non-exporters;...

As a result of the rapid growth of microeconometric studies of exporting firms, we now know quite a lot about the performance dynamics of firms that enter export markets. We know much less about what happens to performance when firms exit. We apply a difference-in-differences methodology based...

Using rich data on the international transactions of intermediate inputs by French firms we investigate the determinants of the choice between vertical integration and outsourcing at the international level. Our results show that the probability of vertical integration is reduced by the extent...

This paper evaluates the trade-off between growth and welfare maximization from two perspectives. Firstly, it synthesizes and ex- tends endogenous growth models with public finance to compare growth and welfare maximizing tax rates. Secondly, it examines the distinct model outcomes in terms of...

In this paper we study the effects of reforms to corporate and personal income taxation on the rate of firm entry and exit using industry data for 19 OECD countries from 1998 to 2005. Using a difference-in-differences approach to correct for endogeneity bias we find that increases in corporate...

Firms that lie far behind the technological frontier have the most to gain from imitating the technology or management practices of others. That some firms converge relatively slowly to the productivity frontier suggests the existence of factors that cause them to underinvest in their...

This paper exploits the unique institutional features of South Africa to estimate the impact of provincial public spending on health, education and transport on firm productivity. Our identification strategy is based on within industry-province differences between firms of the effects of public...