What insights can be gained from bringing the theory of the firm to the global economy? I discuss several new features of the world economy that can be explained by incorporating the theory of the firm into the theory of international trade. Among the new features I discuss are the move to...

We incorporate trade in tasks à la Grossman and Rossi-Hansberg (2008) into a small open economy version of the theory of firm organization of Marin and Verdier (2012) to examine how offshoring affects the way firms organize. We show that the offshoring of production tasks leads firms to...

What explains Germany's superb export performance? Is Germany's export behaviour very distinct compared to other European countries? We explore the organisational responses to competition of 14,000 exporting firms in seven European countries. We examine the export business model of the median...

It is often argued that robots will lead to the reshoring of activity from low wage countries to rich countries - the revival of manufacturing in rich countries. But smart robots are a capital biased technology which could potentially replace smart people. As a result the skill premium - the...

Holger Görg und Saskia Mösle, Institut für Weltwirtschaft, Kiel, halten ein komplettes Verschwinden von globalen Wertschöpfungsketten für unwahrscheinlich. Anzunehmen sei eher, dass Unternehmen die Kosten von Produktionsverlagerungen ins Ausland im Vergleich zur eigenen Herstellung sowie...

Im November 2019 feierte Deutschland 30 Jahre Fall der Berliner Mauer. Die Stimmung ist düster. Heute betrachten sich zwei Drittel der Ostdeutschen als Bürger:innen zweiter Klasse wie aus einer Umfrage des Allensbach Institut für Demoskopie hervorgeht. Der Konvergenzprozess zwischen...