Information frictions and the two margins of trade: evidence from Slovenian manufacturing, with Sašo Polanec 

Abstract: We empirically investigate whether firms through exporting indirectly lower their information frictions associated with foreign sourcing. Using a panel of Slovenian manufacturing firms in the period 1996-2011, we estimate the probability of import entry in a new market when the firm is already exporting to the same country and we find a positive and significant relation. To control for the endogeneity of the export decision, we implement an IV approach exploiting two features of trade: the notion of sequential exporting and the presence of country-sector specific demand shocks. Moreover, we rule out productivity growth as being the only predictor of entry in a foreign market through several falsification tests. This points out that information frictions do play an important role for firms trading in international markets.

Unilateral trade preferences and export growth in developing countries, with Jo Van Biesebroeck

Abstract: In principle, trade policy can help with development policy objectives, but how effective is this in practice? Using product-level bilateral trade flows, we evaluate to what extent trade preferences granted by the EU and the United States raise exports from developing countries. Using augmented difference-in-difference estimators that leverage the high-dimensionality of the data, we find a robust response to these trade policies, but effects seem too small to really matter for development. Moreover, the impact is heterogeneous, but stronger for goods where price competition is the most important dimension of market success - such as less complex and more upstream products - further limiting the development potential.

Trade liberalization and the extensive margin of differentiated goods: evidence from China, with Jo Van Biesebroeck and Yingting Yi. The World Economy, 2022.

Abstract: We exploit tariff reductions associated with China's entry into the WTO to evaluate whether the response of trade flows at the extensive margin depends on the degree of product differentiation. We adopt a 4-way difference-in-differences approach to identify the effects as cleanly as possible by comparing market entry of products from each WTO member into China with entry into India and Indonesia. The absolute tariff elasticities are estimated to be relatively large, compared to existing estimates. This is especially true for differentiated goods, for goods with low Chinese demand elasticity, and for exports from OECD countries. We provide both new evidence and a theoretical justification for the heterogeneity of these effects across products and countries.

The EC consultation on the semiconductors’ value chain, with Nicoletta Rosati, Paolo Bonnet, Andrea Ciani, Nestor Duch Brown, and Sebastián Miguez

Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg (doi:10.2760/609020, JRC133892). 2023  

Effects of trade liberalization on textile and apparel exports from Sub-Sahara Africa, with Jo Van Biesebroeck

Policy Research Working Paper; No. 8936. World Bank, Washington, DC. 2019.

America First!'What are the Job Losses for Belgium and Europe?,  with Hylke Vandenbussche, William Connell Garcia and Wouter Simons

VIVES Briefing 2017/01: 1-6. 2017.

Global value chains and GDP growth in the post-crisis context, with Carlo Altomonte and Italo Colantone

Chapter 7, Measuring competitiveness in Europe: resource allocation, granularity and trade, 118. 2016.