Alessia Lo Turco

Offshoring to High and Low Income Countries and the Labor Demand. Evidence from Italian Firms

Making use of an original data set we investigate the effects of imports of intermediates from high and low income countries on the conditional labour demand of a panel of Italian manufacturing firms. We estimate a dynamic panel data model by means of System GMM allowing for the endogeneity of our right hand side regressors, especially our offshoring measures. Our results bear a negative offshoring effect which is attributable exclusively to imports of intermediates from low income trading partners and mainly concerns firms operating in Traditional sectors. No statistically significant effect is estimated for imports from high income countries. These findings are robust to the different measures of offshoring and to the inclusion of further controls.

Exporters in Services: New Evidence From Italian Firms

This paper provides new evidence on the determinants of the export performance of firms in services based on a cross-section of Italian firms in the NACE Sections G, I and K for the year 2003. The empirical analysis of the determinants of the export status and intensity shows that the success of service firms in foreign markets is specifically related to their experience in the national market, their belonging to national and international networks and to their relationship with large industrial firms. A higher level of productivity and a higher skill intensity only seem to matter when exporting to more distant industrial countries.

Imports, exports and the firm product scope: evidence from Turkey

Making use of an original firm-product level dataset for Turkish manufacturing, we dissect the role of importing, exporting and the joint involvement in both activities on the firm product scope and new product introduction. Within the bulk of overall exports, we identify and focus on foreign sales of own produced goods. From the comparison between a single and a multiple treatment approach, it emerges that the simultaneous entry in the import and export markets delivers the highest innovation rate. Even if we disclose the existence of important complementarities between the two trade activities, starting to export appears as the real driver of firm product innovation. On the contrary and differently from previous evidence, when moving to a multi-treatment setting, the impact of importing fades away.

Dissecting the impact of innovation on exporting in Turkey

Does innovating promote firms’ export probability? By separately modelling – theoretically as well as empirically – the impact of process and product innovation, we show that the joint adoption of both innovation strategies fosters Turkish firms’ first time export entry in rich destination markets. Nevertheless, innovation strengthens firms’ export probability. As predicted by our theoretical sketch, product innovation matters in particular for exporting to developing economies, while process innovation reinforces the role of product innovation for exporting to richer markets.

A Cross-Country View on South-North Migration and Trade: Dissecting the Channels

We explore the nexus between North-South trade and migration in a cross country framework over the period 1990-2005. In addition to the relatively unexploited cross country framework, our main contribution resides in the search for heterogeneous responses of trade to migration according to different good typologies. Besides the usual distinction between homogeneous and di erentiated products dictated by the information channel, we also investigate the e ects of migration on trade in primary and nal goods and in labour and capital intensive goods with the purpose to assess the preferences and technology channels too. Our results show that, as expected, migration enhances the imports of primary and nal goods (preferences channel) and the exports of di erentiated-low elasticity of substitution goods (information channel). On the other hand, there is some evidence that the increase in the presence of migrants from the South enhances the exports of labour intensive goods (technology channel).

New and Improved: Does FDI Boost Production Complexity in Host Countries?

This paper examines the relationship between the presence of foreign affiliates and product upgrading by Turkish manufacturing firms. The analysis suggests that Turkish firms in sectors and regions more likely to supply foreign affiliates tend to introduce more complex products, where complexity is captured using a measure developed by Hausmann and Hidalgo (2009). This finding is robust to controlling for omitted variables, sample selection and potential simultaneity bias. It is also in line with the view that inflows of foreign direct investment stimulate upgrading of indigenous production capabilities in host countries.

On tariff changes and firm-production evolution: insights from Turkish manufacturing

We contribute to the yet limited evidence on the relationship between trade liberalisation and a firms product mix and diversification strategies for an emerging economy, Turkey. Lower import barriers foster firms’ specialisation in their core products. A drop in import tariffs, indeed, enhances a firms propensity to drop fringe varieties and favours production growth of core products. More importantly, it favours firms’ specialisation in more sophisticated goods. Export tariff cuts, instead, by relaxing competitive pressure at home and lowering the cost to export, only reduce the firms’ incentive to innovate.

Economic Growth and the Role of Trade in Intermediates

We estimate the effect of imports and exports of intermediates on economic growth in a panel of more than 100 among developed and developing economies. We find that both capital and intermediate imports positively affect growth. The overall effect is driven by the effect of imports in developing countries. This role for imports is especially confined to imports from high income economies. Exports do not appear to affect growth in the long run.