Katarina Ivas, Rotija Kmet Zupančič, Janez Kušar, Urška Lušina, Nataša Todorović Jemec; Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Kingdom of Spain, 2019
Standing up for competition: Market concentration,regulation, and Europe's quest for a new industrial policy Guinea Oscar; Erixon Fredrik, ECIPE Occasional Paper, No. 01/2019, 2019 –
Show/Hide Executive Summary(part) After the failed merger of Alstom and Siemens – the two giants of Europe ́s railway manufactur-ing sector – the French and the German governments presented a manifesto with a set of radical proposals designed to reshape EU industrial and competition policy. In an article addressed to all European citizens, the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, urged for reform of EU competi-tion policy, to protect Europe from foreign competition1. MEP Guy Verhofstadt, the leader of the European liberals, supports similar claims that Europeans cannot compete with Chinese or Ameri-can firms2. One of the Franco-German suggestions would empower the European Council to veto European Commission decisions on competition policy. French and German Ministers argue that Europe ́s competitiveness in manufacturing is in decline. Somehow weakening EU competition policy, the manifesto claims, will strengthen Europe ́s competitiveness. This argument is wrong. To be competitive, European firms need more not less competition. Measures to promote market competition in Europe should be at the front and centre of any future industrial policy. Unfortu-nately, the evidence shows that market competition in Europe is not rising but declining.
Revisiting the Global Decline of the (Non-Housing) Labor Share German Gutierrez Gallardo, Sophie Piton, SSRN 3384356, June 2019 –
Show/Hide Abstract We identify two undocumented measurement challenges affecting corporate sector labor shares outside the United States: the inclusion of dwellings and the inclusion of self-employed workers in the corresponding sectoral accounts. Both issues have become more important over time, biasing corporate labor shares downward. We propose two methods to correct for these challenges and obtain 'true' non-housing labor share series. Contrary to common wisdom, the corrected series exhibit stable labor shares across all major economies, except the US, where the corrected labor share declines by 6 percentage points since 1980.
Firm heterogeneity and trade in EU countries: a cross-country analysis Claire Giordano, Paloma Lopez-Garcia, Occasional Paper Series No 225, June 2019 –
Show/Hide Abstract Firms are heterogeneous, even within narrowly defined sectors. This paper surveys the relevant theoretical and empirical literature on firm heterogeneity and external trade. By innovatively exploiting rich cross-country micro-aggregated data sourced from the ECB Competitiveness Research Network (CompNet), this study then investigates the main implications of firm heterogeneity for trade of EU countries, showing a set of stylised facts. On the one hand, exporting firms are larger, more productive and pay higher wages than non-exporting firms. Only these firms are able to bear export costs, related to various factors, such as tariff and non-tariff trade barriers, the quality of the legal system or access to finance. Hence, only few enterprises actually export, and the intensity of aggregate export concentration within few large firms varies across countries and sectors. On the other hand, opening to trade boosts individual firms’ productivity growth, via a number of channels, and also enhances allocative efficiency across firms, in turn increasing aggregate productivity growth. One of the main standard determinants of export growth, namely changes in the real effective exchange rate, impacts aggregate performance differently across countries and sectors, depending on sectoral composition and on firm characteristics within a given sector.
Labour Reallocation in Recession and Recovery: Evidence for Europe Eric Bartelsman, Paloma Lopez-Garcia, Giorgio Presidente, National Institute Economic Review, Volume: 247, Issue: 1, February 2019 –
Show/Hide Abstract This paper builds upon Bartelsman, Lopez-Garcia, and Presidente (2018) and provides empirical evidence on the cyclical features of labour reallocation in a sample of European Union (EU) countries over the Great Recession and the slow recovery. The analysis makes use of cross-country micro-aggregated data on firm dynamics and productivity from release 6 of the ECB CompNet database. While productivity-enhancing reallocation generally is counter-cyclical, with a stronger effect providing a silver lining in downturns, it was weaker during the Great Recession in the EU, but reverted back to more normal patters in the most recent years.
Revisiting the global decline of the (non-housing) labor share Germán Gutiérrez, Sophie Piton, Bank of England Staff Working Paper No. 811, July 2019 –
Show/Hide Abstract We show that cross-country comparisons of corporate labor shares are affected by differences in the delineation of corporate sectors. While the US excludes all self-employed and most dwellings from the corporate sector, other countries include large amounts of both — biasing labor shares downwards. We propose two methods to control for these differences and obtain ‘harmonized’ non-housing labor share series. Contrary to common wisdom, the harmonized series remain stable across all major economies except the US, where the labor share still declines, primarily due to manufacturing. These new facts cast doubts on most technological explanations for the labor share decline.
2018
Cyclical and structural variation in resource allocation: evidence for Europe Eric Bartelsman, Paloma Lopez-Garcia, Giorgio Presidente, ECB Working Paper Series No 2210, November 2018 –
Show/Hide Abstract This paper uses cross-country micro-aggregated data on firm dynamics and productivity from the ECB CompNet database to provide empirical evidence on factor reallocation in the European Union (EU). The analysis finds that reallocation is towards more productive firms although the magnitude varies across countries and over time. Variation in reallocation is related to structural differences in firm size distribution across countries as well as to variation in labor and product market institutions. Productivity-enhancing reallocation generally rises in downturns but, similar to findings for the US, it did not pick up in the Great Recession. The sharp drop in exports and tightness in credit markets are seen to provide a partial explanation for this lack of a silver lining.
Structural policies in the euro area Klaus Masuch, Robert Anderton, Ralph Setzer,Nicholai Benalal(editors), Occasional Paper Series No 210, June 2018 –
Show/Hide Abstract Structural policies in the euro area are of great interest for the Eurosystem, particularly as they can support the smooth functioning of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) and the effectiveness of monetary policy. This paper adopts a broad definition of structural policies, analysing not only the benefits of efficient labour, product and financial market regulations, but also emphasising the importance of good governance and efficient institutions that ensure high quality and impartial public services, the rule of law and the control of rent-seeking. The paper concludes that there are many opportunities for enhanced structural policies in EU and euro area countries which can yield substantial gains by boosting long-term income and employment growth and supporting social fairness, also via better and more equal opportunities. It provides empirical and model-based analyses on the impacts and the interactions of structural policies, highlighting synergies between growth and inclusiveness, while acknowledging that
