Papers by giorgia giovannetti
We thank Narayana Kocherlakota, and two anonymous referees for very useful comments and suggestio... more We thank Narayana Kocherlakota, and two anonymous referees for very useful comments and suggestions. We also thank Isabel Correia and Juan Pablo Nicolini for their comments, as well as the participants in seminars and conferences where this work has been presented. Financial support of the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología (Grants: SEC2002-004318), FIRB (Grant RBNE03YT7Z-006) and the Fundação de Ciência e Tecnologia of Portugal is also acknowledged. The views expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of
We analyze the trade patterns among the countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) ... more We analyze the trade patterns among the countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and investigate whether and to what extent they explain the allocation of investment projects regarding their number and value. Our findings indicate that investments tend to concentrate in countries already involved in global value chains (GVC) and especially favor suppliers of intermediate goods to China with similar sectoral specialization. At the same time, more developed countries closer to destination markets tend to attract fewer but larger investments. The BRI represents an opportunity for China to upgrade its exports and for the involved countries to join GVC productions.
We use the instruments of the social network analysis to revisit the relationship between interna... more We use the instruments of the social network analysis to revisit the relationship between international migration and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) flows in the period between 2000 and 2015. Applying a multilevel mixed estimator inspired to the gravity literature, we test how and to what extent the structure of the international migrants’ network contributes to bilateral FDI flows. We find that the inclusion of network level statistics exposes a much larger degree of complexity in the relationship between international migration and investments. Testing the assumption that migrants networks act as preferential channel for information with their homeland, we find evidence that a more diverse immigrant community in investing countries could “perturb” the flow of information at bilateral level, de facto translating into lower bilateral FDI. ♠ University of Bielefeld and University of Florence – filippo.santi@uni-bielefeld.de (Corresponding Author) – ♦ University of Florence and Europ...
Economia Politica, 2020
After more than two decades of trade liberalization, faced with deep structural problems which we... more After more than two decades of trade liberalization, faced with deep structural problems which were exacerbated by the 2008 financial crisis and culminated in the 2011 Spring Revolution and government change, in 2016 Egypt started to protect some sectors from foreign competition. This paper assesses how tariff reforms during the 1998–2018 period affected the Egyptian labour market by focusing on real wages and job stability (i.e. having a permanent position). The empirical analysis is carried out on worker-level data from the available four waves of Egyptian Labour Market Panel Survey (ELMPS), including the recently released 2018 wave. We find that higher tariff protection tends to worsen labour market conditions, both lowering real wages and decreasing the probability of finding a stable job. Furthermore, tariff changes show remarkable asymmetries. There is a negative and significant correlation between tariffs increases and real wages, while the positive impact of tariff reduction...
Italian Economic Journal, 2019
This paper investigates the heterogeneity within the group of foreign direct investors by analyzi... more This paper investigates the heterogeneity within the group of foreign direct investors by analyzing the relation between parents' productivity, the degree of domestic competition and the characteristics of their affiliates. Our results show that there is no unique recipe. Foreign direct investors may benefit differently depending on the economic environment in which they operate. Building an original 10-year panel dataset of Italian investors, we find that larger manufacturing parents tend to have more, larger and more productive affiliates in a higher number of destinations as well as being more productive in terms of total factor productivity. Having affiliates in high income countries or in both high and low income countries is associated with a productivity premium vis-à-vis investors in low income countries. Parent sector characteristics such as technology and degree of competition are also associated with productivity in a non-monotonic way. Low income country investors are found to be relatively more productive when operating in more competitive low technology sectors, while the opposite holds true for high income country investors, which become more productive when operating in less competitive high technology sectors. Keywords Foreign direct investment • Heterogeneous firms • Total factor productivity • Multinationals • Affiliates JEL Classification F12 • F14 • F21 The authors thank Davide Castellani, Lapo Filistrucchi and Marco Sanfilippo for useful discussions and the participants to: Italian Economic Association conference, Napoli,
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2015
We investigate the heterogeneity within the group of foreign direct investors and the relation be... more We investigate the heterogeneity within the group of foreign direct investors and the relation between affiliates characteristics and parent productivity. Using data on Italian firms, we show that foreign direct investors differ in their productivity level according to their characteristics and their investment decisions. Larger parents by employment or sales tend to be more productive, to have more affiliates and to invest in a higher number of destinations. Focusing on manufacturing firms, we show econometrically that having more and larger affiliates in rich countries leads to higher ex-post productivity. In particular, investing in high income countries or both in high and low income countries is associated with a subsequent productivity premium vis-à-vis low income countries investors, especially for larger parents. Low income countries investors are found to be relatively more productive when operating in low technology sectors, while the opposite applies to high income countries investors.
Global Value Chains (GVCs) have become the predominant structure in world trade flows. They allow... more Global Value Chains (GVCs) have become the predominant structure in world trade flows. They allow the specialisation of firms in very specific tasks, thus offering easier access to international markets. Developing countries may benefit from this framework through many channels. We focus on Egypt, a country that has faced remarkable challenges in recent years. The analysis is based on the World Bank Enterprise Surveys. After descriptive statistics that evidence the superior performance of traders with respect to domestic firms, this paper investigates the specific relationship between GVC participation and firm productivity. We are interested in enquiring whether a learning mechanism for Egyptian GVC participants exists, in the aftermath of the revolution. We use the definition by Taglioni and Winkler (2016), that allows participants to be broken down into different groups and, hence, to investigate differential effects for these categories. By using a DiD-PSM procedure, we affirm t...
Productivity and the international firm: dissecting heterogeneity
ICE - Ag. per la Promozione all'Estero e l'Intern. delle Imprese Italiane, 2018
INDICE 2.2.2 Le funzioni aziendali, le modalità organizzative e la distribuzione geografica 2.2.3... more INDICE 2.2.2 Le funzioni aziendali, le modalità organizzative e la distribuzione geografica 2.2.3 Il carattere regionale o globale delle reti produttive internazionali 2.2.4 L'articolazione delle reti produttive internazionali e la loro governance 2.3 Mezzi di trasporto 2.3.1 Le imprese del campione 2.3.2 Le funzioni aziendali, le modalità organizzative e la distribuzione geografica delle attività 2.3.3 Il carattere regionale o globale delle reti produttive internazionali 2.3.4 L'articolazione delle reti produttive internazionali e la loro governance Riquadro Caso aziendale: Cecomp 2.4 I subfornitori 2.4.1 Le imprese del campione 2.4.2 Le funzioni aziendali, le modalità organizzative e la distribuzione geografica delle attività 2.4.3 La posizione dei subfornitori nelle reti produttive internazionali 2.4.4 Il ruolo delle tecnologie dell'informazione e della comunicazione Riquadri Caso aziendale: Cornaglia Caso aziendale: Olsa 3. I servizi alle imprese per partecipare alle reti produttive internazionali 3.1 I casi di studio aziendali: la domanda di servizi di sostegno 3.2. L'importanza delle reti produttive internazionali per le politiche pubbliche di sostegno e per i servizi dell'Ice
This paper investigates the role of cultural proximity (CP) on greenfield foreign direct investme... more This paper investigates the role of cultural proximity (CP) on greenfield foreign direct investment (FDI). We build a conceptual framework that explicitly accounts for the asymmetric dimensions in the cultural relationship between two countries, and single out a symmetric element (similarity) and an asymmetric one (attractiveness) within a broad notion of CP. We use bilateral trade in cultural goods to proxy for asymmetric and time-dependent CP. We revisit the existing supply/origin-side theories of bilateral FDI to derive a gravity equation suited for testing the impact of both directions of asymmetric CP. To this end, we introduce several ‘destination-side’ mechanisms to rationalize the potential role of the origin’s culture attractiveness for the country that hosts the investment project. The econometric analysis confirms a positive role of asymmetric CP as a determinant of Greenfield FDI, and suggests a stronger contribution of the destination-side channels.
The aim of the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies is to contribute to the public debate b... more The aim of the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies is to contribute to the public debate by offering views and opinions on matters of general interest. The EUI and the RSCAS are not responsible for the opinion expressed by the author(s).
AIEL Series in Labour Economics, 2015
This chapter studies the effect of FDI in business services on total factor productivity (TFP) of... more This chapter studies the effect of FDI in business services on total factor productivity (TFP) of Italian manufacturing firms, over the period 2003–2008. More precisely, the chapter tests the presence of vertical linkages between foreign business professionals and domestic manufacturing firms. Our results, robust to different specifications, show that foreign capital inflows in business services improve the performance of domestic manufacturing firms. This relationship is particularly strong in the case of high-tech sectors, such as mechanics andmachinery. Traditional sectors, on the other hand, seem to be less sensitive to the availability of foreign business services in the same location.
QA Rivista dell'Associazione Rossi-Doria, 2013
The World Economy, 2012
The theoretical literature has discussed different channels through which foreign direct investme... more The theoretical literature has discussed different channels through which foreign direct investments (FDI) promote host country's economic growth, but empirical analyses have so far been inconclusive. In this paper we provide evidence that FDI have a positive and statistically significant growth effect in recipient countries, using a panel of 14 manufacturing sectors for (a sample of) developed and developing countries over the period 1992-2004. Moreover, we find that this effect is stronger in capital intensive and in technologically advanced sectors, highlighting the importance of sector characteristics. We find that the growth enhancing effect comes primarily from an increase in total factor productivity (TFP) and from capital accumulation. FDI not only contribute to physical capital accumulation, but also generate positive technological spillovers. Our results are robust to the inclusion of other determinants of economic growth. We also address the issue of potential endogeneity and results are confirmed. Policy implications of our findings are important, especially for developing countries, where the growth enhancing promotion of foreign investment in capital intensive and technologically advanced sectors is at the heart of the debate.
Review of Middle East Economics and Finance, 2009
A Tale of Parallel Integration Processes. A Gravity Analysis of EU Trade with Mediterranean and C... more A Tale of Parallel Integration Processes. A Gravity Analysis of EU Trade with Mediterranean and Central and Eastern European Countries * Despite the EU emphasis on the 1995 Barcelona process, trade integration with the Mediterranean (MED) countries is still underdeveloped. To contrast the success of EU integration with MED countries and that with the new EU members, we compute the trade potential of these EU partners from 1995 to 2002 using an "out-of-sample" methodology. The coefficients are taken from different panel estimators of the gravity equation relative to intra-EU trade. Our analysis suggests the existence of sizeable, unexploited trade potential with both groups of partners, although the ratio of potential to actual trade with the MED countries is much larger (from 1.7 to 2.5 times), more dispersed and stable compared to that with the CEECs. Moreover, the potential tends to converge to actual trade in a much longer time in the case of MED countries.
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Papers by giorgia giovannetti