Economists have shown that international trade increases economic growth, with trade liberalization and integration having characterized the last 50 years. While trade can increase national welfare, recent estimates from both developed and developing countries show that labor market adjustment...

Economists have shown that international trade increases economic growth, with trade liberalization and integration having characterized the last 50 years. While trade can increase national welfare, recent estimates from both developed and developing countries show that labor market adjustment...

We investigate the role of local social pressure in shaping the geographical pattern of firms' firing decisions. Using French linked employer-employee data, we show that social pressure exerted by the local communities where firms' headquarters are located induces CEOs to refrain from dismissing...

The macroeconomic implications of firms' lumpy investment behavior are subject to ongoing research. Lumpy investment results from fixed capital adjustment costs which give firms an incentive to reduce the frequency of capital adjustments. However, previous studies have underestimated the...

China's emergence as a great economic power has induced an epochal shift in patterns of world trade. Simultaneously, it has toppled much of the received empirical wisdom about how labor markets adjust to trade shocks. Alongside its heralded consumer benefits, trade has both significant...

In this paper, we argue that differences in the cost structures across sectors play an important role in firms' decisions to adjust their prices. We develop a menu-cost model of pricing in which retail firms intermediate trade between producers and consumers. An important facet of our analysis...

China's emergence as a great economic power has induced an epochal shift in patterns of world trade. Simultaneously, it has challenged much of the received empirical wisdom about how labor markets adjust to trade shocks. Alongside the heralded consumer benefits of expanded trade are substantial...

Using a representative establishment data set for Germany, we show that, in line with the existing literature for several countries, firms' adjustment costs for employment are characterized by a fixed and convex functional form. Furthermore, they are asymmetric with dismissal costs exceeding...

We introduce knowledge spillovers as an externality in the production function of competitive firms operating in a finite spatial domain under adjustment costs. Spillovers are spatial as productive knowledge flows more easily among firms located nearby. When knowledge spillovers are not...

We investigate the role of local social pressure in shaping the geographical pattern of firms' firing decisions. Using French linked employer-employee data, we show that social pressure exerted by the local communities where firms' headquarters are located induces CEOs to refrain from dismissing...

Transition from one economic equilibrium to another as a consequence of shocks is often associated with sunk adjustment costs. Firm specific sunk market entry investments (or sunk market exit costs) in case of a reaction to price shocks are an example. These adjustment costs lead to a dynamic...

The macroeconomic implications of firms' lumpy investment behavior are subject to ongoing research. Lumpy investment results from fixed capital adjustment costs which give firms an incentive to reduce the frequency of capital adjustments. However, previous studies have underestimated the...

This paper provides a different perspective on the firm-level empirical analysis of the relation between foreign ownership and capital demand adjustment in host countries. The author estimates a dynamic structural model of investment on a sample of 4672 Belgian firms observed between 2003 and...

Transition from one economic equilibrium to another as a consequence of shocks is often associated with sunk adjustment costs. Firm specific sunk market entry investments (or sunk market exit costs) in case of a reaction to price shocks are an example. These adjustment costs lead to a dynamic...

This paper provides an alternative perspective on the firm-level empirical analysis of the relation between foreign ownership and capital demand adjustment in host countries. The author estimates a dynamic structural model of investment on a sample of 4,672 Belgian firms for the period 2003 -...

The issue of target leverage for corporate firms in developing countries has received little attention in extant literature, especially countries in Africa. Given the imperfection that exists in African financial markets that may limit firms access to external capital, this study investigates...

We investigate the role of local social pressure in shaping the geographical pattern of firms' firing decisions. Using French linked employer-employee data, we show that social pressure exerted by the local communities where firms' headquarters are located induces CEOs to refrain from dismissing...