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This paper combines two very distinct strands of literature, firm-level trade analysis and studies on the impact of ownership structure. I explore the correlation between firm ownership structure and its engagement in external trade using data for the population of Slovene enterprises between 2005 and 2012. The estimates indicate that concentrated firm ownership is more conducive to firms being exporters. Even after controlling for firm type, age, ownership type and ownership stability in addition to the full set of covariates accounting for exporting status, firms with a smaller number of owners and more concentrated ownership are found more likely to be exporters. Results prove to be robust to changes in definitions and econometric approach. These findings fully support the inclusion of ownership structure variables in firm-level trade analysis as one of the core determinants of exporting success.

Like large companies, small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) are turning to new digital technologies and knowledge-based capital to bolster their productivity and growth. However, data show that smaller companies lag significantly in implementing new Industry 4.0 technologies and in the intensity of their use. Lack of skills and human capital is often cited as one of the biggest barriers. This paper examines the benefits of digital technologies, intangible capital, and in particular the role of complementary investments in new technologies and intangible capital to maximize the impact on productivity growth. The analysis draws on extensive firm-level datasets combining business and employee registry data and the harmonized EU ICT usage survey for the period 2007-2020 in Slovenia. While SMEs lag behind large companies in the use of ICT on average, the use of ICT and other new technologies significantly increases the productivity of companies in the SME sector, especially when combined with the intangible investments that enhance the contribution of new technologies. Several conclusions emerge from the results, in particular the need to grow and invest intelligently, that is, to invest in intangible assets and new technologies simultaneously, even in SMEs.

This paper studies the importance of shocks to the largest firms on the aggregate output. Using firm-level data on eight European countries (2006-2019), we find that shocks to the largest firms explain an important part of aggregate fluctuations. Our paper brings several novelties. Firstly, in addition to the aggregate level, we extend the analysis of the transmission of firm-level shocks to study the shocks at the sectoral level. Secondly, we provide a novel measurement for demand-side shocks within granularity. We show that idiosyncratic shocks affecting the largest 20 firms can explain almost half of the output volatility, which is consistent with Gabaix (2011). Moreover, demand-side shocks contribute a greater share to this volatility compared to supply-side shocks. Finally, we show that the smaller the sample of the largest firms, the larger the propagation effect of the shocks to GDP. This suggests that a few large firms drive a large part of the aggregate volatility, while volatility of other larger firms balances out on average.

Despite the mounting evidence in support of the role of intangible capital on firm performance, some research gaps remain. This paper focuses on the link between intangible capital and firm performance with a particular focus on the effect firm size has on the relationship by studying the population of Slovene enterprises between 2007 and 2020. We find that while intangible assets are positively associated with productivity, the link is by no means linear. Furthermore, micro firms appear to benefit most from investing in intangible assets, while the effect is less robust for small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) and large firms. Amongst different types of intangible assets, the strongest effect on productivity was found for investment in property rights and goodwill, while long-term deferred development costs had a weaker effect on firm productivity.

This paper uses large cross-country data for 110 countries to examine the effectiveness of COVID vaccination coverage during the delta variant outbreak. Our results confirm that vaccines are reasonably effective in both limiting the spread of infections and containing more severe disease progression in symptomatic patients. First, the results show that full vaccination rate is consistently negatively correlated with the number of new COVID cases, whereby a 10 percent increase in vaccination rate is associated with a 1.3 to 1.7 percent decrease in new COVID cases. Second, the magnitude of vaccination is shown to contribute significantly to moderating severe disease progression. On average, a 10 percent increase in the rate of vaccination leads to a reduction of about 5 percent in the number of new hospitalizations, 12 percent decrease in the number of new intensive care patients and 2 percent reduction in the number of new deaths. Finally, by comparing the data for the same period between 2020 and 2021, we also check how well vaccination performs as a substitute for lockdowns or other stringent government protection measures. Results suggest that vaccination appears to be an effective substitute for more stringent government safety measures to contain the spread of COVID infections only at a sufficiently high vaccination coverage threshold (more than 70 percent). On the other hand, vaccination is shown to be quite effective in limiting the more severe course of the disease in symptomatic patients already at moderate vaccination coverage (between 40 and 70 percent). This suggests that vaccination can also help to reduce pressure on the health system and thus benefit the overall public health of society. On the other hand, the efficient rollout of vaccines could explain the favourable economic performance in the second half of 2021 despite the severe outbreak of the delta variant.

This paper contributes to research on the factors that have led to the decline of manufacturing employment in advanced economies by studying the impact of both import penetration and technological intensity on manufacturing employment between 2008 and 2018 using an extensive industry-level dataset for 28 EU countries. The findings make it clear that the growing share of Chinese imports in total extra-EU-28 imports significantly explains the declining trend in EU sectoral employment. The mentioned trend is shown to be mainly driven by the import penetration of Chinese consumer goods and less by the outsourcing of intermediate products. Yet, little evidence is found of technological intensity having a detrimental impact on sectoral employment outcomes. While the correlation between business expenditure on research and development per employee and employment growth was weakly negative, the share of information and communication technologies assets in total assets was positively correlated with both aggregate employment growth and the share of unskilled workers in the sector.

This paper contributes to research on the factors that have led to the decline of manufacturing employment in advanced economies by studying the impact of both import penetration and technological intensity on manufacturing employment between 2008 and 2018 using an extensive industry-level dataset for 28 EU countries. The findings make it clear that the growing share of Chinese imports in total extra-EU-28 imports significantly explains the declining trend in EU sectoral employment. The mentioned trend is shown to be mainly driven by the import penetration of Chinese consumer goods and less by the outsourcing of intermediate products. Yet, little evidence is found of technological intensity having a detrimental impact on sectoral employment outcomes. While the correlation between business expenditure on research and development per employee and employment growth was weakly negative, the share of information and communication technologies assets in total assets was positively correlated with both aggregate employment growth and the share of unskilled workers in the sector.

nternational tobacco smuggling remains an important concern for governments, tobacco manufactur-ers and health experts alike. While often linked to other forms of illegal activities, it also directly impacts govern-ment tax and health policies. Knowledge of factors that contribute to illicit tobacco trade and the existence of smug-gling routes is strongly hampered by the lack of reliable data on bilateral flows of illicit tobacco. Therefore, recon-structing the trafficking routes and estimating the size of cross-border illicit flows are crucial steps for gaining bet-ter understanding of these crimes and enforcing actions aimed at countering them. This study is the first to use grav-ity estimation techniques to decompose aggregate illicit cig-arette inflows for which data are available into their bilat-eral components. Our approach is a simple and effective method that can serve as a complement to other methods of pinpointing international trafficking flows such as empty discarded pack data or network analysis to help in the fight against illicit tobacco flows. Policymakers, customs officials as well as law enforcement can employ the presented meth-ods as an additional tool in the fight against illicit trade. Keywords: bilateral illicit cigarette trade, gravity model, predictive estimation

Using a large firm-level dataset we investigate what kind of firms from new EU member states from Central and Eastern Europe (CEECs) tend to invest abroad (testing of self-selection hypothesis), and what is the impact of outward FDI on their productivity (testing of learning-by-investing hypothesis). We find that the best firms tend to self-select into outward FDI. There is also a positive effect of outward FDI on productivity growth of investing firms from CEECs, the strongest being in the case of Estonia, Romania, Czech Republic, and Slovakia. The positive impact of becoming a first-time foreign investor is relatively long lasting, but comes into effect only in investments in Western European or other CEECs and in the case of manufacturing subsidiaries.

Based on the global supply chains’ economics the objective of the paper is to ascertain to what extent FDI has been a factor of structural change and productivity growth in Central and Eastern European Countries’ (CEECs) manufacturing. By applying the empirical model that accounts for the impact of FDI on export restructuring (controlling for export demand, imports and intra-industry intensity of trade) and standard growth accounting approach to capture the effect of export restructuring on industry productivity growth we empirically accounts for the importance of the 'global supply chains' concept for export restructuring and productivity growth in CEECs in the period 1995-2007. Using industry-level data and accounting for technology intensity, we show that FDI has significantly contributed to export restructuring in the CEECs. The effects of FDI are, however, heterogeneous across countries. While more advanced core CEECs succeeded in boosting exports in higher-end technology industries, non-core CEECs stuck with export specialization in lower-end technology industries. This suggests that in what kind of industries FDI flows have been directed is of key importance. The paper adds to the relevant literature by explaining the mechanism through which FDI contributed to economic and technological restructuring in CEECs.