This paper exploits daily infrared images taken from satellites to track economic activity in advanced and emerging countries. We first develop a framework to read, clean, and exploit satellite images. Our algorithm uses the laws of physics (Planck's law) and machine learning to detect the heat...

We study the effect of demand uncertainty on firm growth. We use product-level bilateral trade data to build an exogenous firm-level measure of the uncertainty of demand shocks. We match it with exhaustive custom and fiscal data between 1996 and 2013. An increase in uncertainty has a negative...

We study the effect of demand uncertainty on firm growth. We use product-level bilateral trade data to build an exogenous firm-level measure of the uncertainty of demand shocks. We match it with exhaustive custom and fiscal data between 1996 and 2013. An increase in uncertainty has a negative...

Global trade contracted quickly and severely during the global crisis. This paper, using a unique dataset of French firms, matching together export data with firm-level credit constraints, shows that most of the 2008-2009 trade collapse is accounted by the unprecedented demand shock and by...

The unprecedented drop in international trade during the last quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009 has mainly been analysed at the macroeconomic or sectoral level. However, exporters who are heterogeneous in terms of productivity, size or external financial dependence should be...

Using a very detailed set of French firms' data on trade flows and balance sheets, this paper analyses to what extent firms' financial frictions, considered as the interaction of financial dependence and financial constraints, and trading time affect their trade flows. In this empirical study...

Global trade contracted quickly and severely during the global crisis. This paper uses a unique dataset of French firms to match export data to firm-level credit constraints and shows that most of the 2008–2009 trade collapse was due to the unprecedented demand shock and to product...

La mesure d’un taux d’intermédiation est un bon moyen de caractériser de manière synthétique l’importance du rôle des intermédiaires financiers dans l’économie et leur positionnement face à l’essor de la finance de marché. Ce travail a pour objet d’en présenter et d’en...