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Introduction
Current institution
Publications
Publications (77)
This study performs a comprehensive analysis of the importance of the financial constraints on: general firms’ decisions to perform R&D, R&D intensity, firms’ decision to start performing R&D, and R&D persistence. Different dimensions such as profitability, liquidity, total assets, solvency, repaying ability and the cost of the external financing a...
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the interrelation between two innovating strategies (product and process) on total factor productivity (TFP) growth and the dynamic linkages between these strategies, for Colombia. The authors first explore whether ex ante more productive firms are those that introduce innovations (the self-selection hypothesis) a...
The objective of this research is to investigate the effect of ICT on the performance of Colombian manufacturing SMEs in export markets. In doing so, we explore the direct effect of ICT on exports and propose a new indirect effect that operates through imports: purchasing foreign intermediates incentivise ICT use, and ICT experience on imports exer...
This paper analyses the dynamic linkages between firms’ imports of intermediate inputs and exports, for Colombia, an emerging economy. We use data for manufacturing firms from the Colombian Annual Manufacturing Survey, for the period 2007-2016. We specially focus on the identification of direct and indirect effects of past importing/exporting exper...
In this article we explore the factors contributing to reduce the distance of laggard firms to the European frontier, focusing on institutional factors. To characterize Total Factor Productivity frontier firms within industries for the European Union we use firm level data from AMADEUS for the period 2003–2014. Our findings provide evidence on the...
The aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of two trading strategies (exporting and importing) on total factor productivity (TFP) and the potential complementarity/ substitutability effects of these strategies. In order to assess these effects, robust estimates of TFP are obtained using a general method of moments approach
that explicitly d...
Existing literature recognizes the possible role of trade policy and firms’ exposure to international trade as determinants of productivity. A strand of the literature sheds light on the effects of trade policy changes on firm-level productivity. Another strand studies the relationship between firms’ trade status (exporting production or importing...
We investigate the role of financial constraints on firms’ exporting behavior, including firms’ export decision, export intensity, firms starting to export decision, and exports persistence. Our financial constraints variable is a synthetic variable that summarizes information on different dimensions such as total assets, profitability, liquidity,...
This paper analyzes and quantifies the fundamental factors that are likely to cause persistence in performing R&D activities: the existence of sunk costs associated with R&D activities and the process of learning that characterizes this type of activity. We estimate our model with Spanish manufacturing firms for the period 1991-2014. By decomposing...
The Spanish economy was one of those most hit by the Great Recession in the euro area. It suffered a huge decrease in gross domestic product (GDP), affecting especially internal demand, and in business and enterprises’ research and development (R&D) expenditures, but experienced an important increase in exports as regard to the precrisis years (the...
The aim in this paper is analysing the role of sourcing intermediate inputs internationally on export decisions, distinguishing whether intermediates are sourced from firms belonging to the same business group or from independent suppliers. To analyse firms’ export decisions, we use a specification that also accounts for sunk costs and accumulated...
This work analyses the firms’ internationalization strategies of importing intermediates and exporting output, and the potential rewards of these activities in terms of total factor productivity (TFP), as a proxy for marginal costs, and markups. It further deepens into the study of the relationship between internationalization strategies and markup...
We develop a model of export persistence which is based around different patterns of learning by exporting. Cumulative previous exporting can help lengthen subsequent exporting spells, but this can be compromised by the punctuated learning arising from a pattern of sporadic exporting. Firms with episodic exporting exhibit different learning pattern...
The aim of this study is to ascertain the impact of two firm innovation strategies—namely, intramural R&D and external R&D, including either contracted R&D and import of technology, upon total factor productivity (TFP). In order to evaluate these effects we consider robust estimates of TFP through a GMM approach where we account for the diverse inn...
The literature on firm productivity recognizes the important role played by firm innovation activities on firm productivity in developed countries. However, the literature for developing and emerging economies is scarce and far from conclusive. The aim of this paper is to study the innovation-productivity link (distinguishing between process and pr...
This article provides evidence on the effect of the Great Recession on productivity convergence among European Union (EU) economies. We use firm data, aggregated at the country-year level, to analyse the evolution of beta-convergence on total factor productivity (TFP) for 2003–2014. We obtain a positive impact of the recession on TFP (unconditional...
We present a new e-class command, acfest, that implements the method of Ackerberg, Caves, and Frazer (2015, Econometrica 83: 2411-2451) to estimate production functions. This method deals with the functional dependence problems that may arise in the methods proposed by Olley and Pakes (1996, Econometrica 64: 1263-1297) and, particularly, Levinsohn...
Máñez J., Pérez-López G., Prior D. and Zafra-Gómez J. L. Understanding the dynamic effect of contracting out on the delivery of local public services, Regional Studies. Contracting out is a mechanism through which the delivery of public services can be made more efficient. However, the process has yielded conflicting results. This paper presents a...
This paper explores the link between exports and total factor productivity (TFP) for Brazilian manufacturing firms over the period 2000–2008, both under the assumption of an exogenous or an endogenous law of motion for productivity. The authors first obtain TFP estimates under each alternative assumption following Wooldridge (On estimating firm-lev...
This paper analyses whether undertaking R&D activities allows SMEs to attenuate the negative impact of recessions on productivity. In contrast to other studies we use a firm level indicator of the cycle based on firms’ own perceptions, while total factor productivity is obtained using a control function methodology in which we recognise the potenti...
We investigate the role of internal and external financial constraints in the firms' joint decision to export and invest in R&D. We use objective measures at the firm level such as cash flow and financial costs. We further analyze both if firms' size and the onset of the current economic crisis have had an impact. We estimate our model with Spanish...
This paper estimates a dynamic model of a firm's decision to export and invest in R&D, in which we allow past export and R&D experience to endogenously affect productivity. In our empirical strategy, we proceed in two steps: in the first step, using as starting point the traditional control approach method to estimate total factor productivity, we...
This paper analyses the sources of persistence in conducting R&D activities by SMEs. The data used are a panel of Spanish manufacturing firms drawn from the Survey of Business Strategies, for the period 1990-2011. We estimate discrete time proportional hazard models accounting for firm observed and unobserved heterogeneity. Our results are consiste...
This article analyses whether the productivity gains associated with Learning-by-Exporting (LBE) (controlling for self-selection) depend on the intensity of the firm's exporting activity. The results from a representative sample of Spanish manufacturing firms indicate that the yearly average gains in productivity are larger for those firms that inc...
In a symmetric differentiated experimental duopoly we test the ability of Price Guarantees (PGs) to raise prices above the competitive levels. Different types of PGs (‘aggressive’ and ‘soft’ price-beating and price-matching) are implemented either as an exogenously imposed market rule or as a business strategy. Our results show that PGs may lead cl...
En este artículo se exploran los posibles efectos de la introducción de innovaciones de proceso en el crecimiento de la productividad de las pequeñas y medianas empresas (PYMES). Para ello se presta especial atención a la existencia de un problema de selección no aleatorio en la implementación de tales innovaciones. En primer lugar, se analiza si s...
Self-selection and learning-by-exporting are the main explanations for the higher productivity of exporting firms. But, whereas evidence on self-selection is largely undisputed, results on learning-by-exporting are mixed and far from conclusive. However, recent research (De Loecker, 2010) has shown that the conclusions from previous learning-by-exp...
En este trabajo se realiza una descomposición del crecimiento de las exportaciones de manufacturas españolas en sus márgenes extensivo e intensivo. A su vez, cada margen está formado por dos componentes: las nuevas relaciones de comercio y su valor (para el margen extensivo); y, las transacciones comerciales que sobreviven y su cambio de valor (par...
We develop a theoretical model of retail competition that include two sources of quality, one inherently linked to brand characteristics and the other linked to the retailer level of service. We then measure their contribution in explaining the observed price differentials for a sample of U.K. grocery retailer prices in the south of Coventry during...
In this paper we explore in depth the direct effect of process innovations on total factor productivity growth for small and medium enterprises. First, we analyse whether the ex-ante more productive SMEs are those that start introducing process innovations; then, we test whether process innovations boost SME productivity growth using matching techn...
En este trabajo se analiza el crecimiento del gasto en I+D de las empresas manufactureras españolas a través de su descomposición en tres componentes que recogen la iniciación en la realización de actividades de I+D, su persistencia y su nivel de intensificación. Utilizando datos de la Encuesta sobre Estrategias Empresariales para el período 1990-2...
Abstract The trade literature has long discussed the existence of some benefits attributed to exporting, among others, the improvement of firm productivity. This paper examines whether firm size plays a role in this supposedly favourable relationship between exporting and total factor productivity (TFP). To examine this, we investigate, separately...
This paper discusses celebrity participation in social marketing programs focusing on public health, especially on HIV programs. The research identifies the inhibitions of celebrity people and implications that this involvement may have upon their lives. The paper analysis data from in-depth interviews made to twenty-seven Portuguese celebrities fr...
En este estudio se analiza en qué medida el carácter multinacional de las empresas (definido en términos de su participación accionarial) influye en la relación endógena entre investigación y desarrollo (I+D) y productividad. En particular, la contribución de la I+D a la productividad es analizada para un panel representativo de empresas ex...
Este artículo resume los principales resultados obtenidos por este grupo de investigación –
Proyecto PRY115/09 perteneciente a la convocatoria de proyectos de investigación de 2009 de
la Fundación Centro de Estudios Andaluces- sobre las políticas de promoción empresarial,
dividiéndolos en dos tipos: los que pueden convertirse en guías útiles para m...
In this study, we analyze multinationality (domestic-based firms versus multinationals) and foreignness (foreign versus domestic
firms) effects in the returns of R&D to productivity. We follow a two-step strategy. In the first step, we consistently estimate
firm's productivity by GMM and numerically compute the sample distribution of the R&D return...
We present a dynamic empirical model of a firm's R&D decisions that is consistent with the existence of sunk R&D costs, taking into account that these costs may differ between small and large firms, and among different technological regimes. We estimate a multivariate dynamic discrete choice model using firm-level data of Spanish manufacturing for...
Recent research has related the firm decision to export with firm innovation activities and productivity. The aim of this paper is to disentangle the direct and indirect links through which self-selection into exports, coming both from productivity and innovation, may operate. For this purpose we use Spanish manufacturing firm data for the period 1...
This paper examines whether firms starting to sell to more global markets, because they export, enjoy better total factor productivity (TFP) prospects than non-exporting firms. We investigate both if they perform better ex-ante (self-selection) and if they are also more productive ex-post (learning-by-exporting). We use non-parametric Kolmogorov-Sm...
This paper analyses the evolution of the participation rate and export intensity for Spanish manufacturing for the 90s, and compare them internationally using a sample of 13 countries. Further, the article also studies how these variables explain the evolution of aggregate manufacturing exports. The data for Spain have been drawn from the Encuesta...
The trade literature has long discussed the existence of some benefits attributed to exporting (learning-by-exporting), among
others, the improvement in survival chances. This paper examines whether exporting SMEs enjoy better survival prospects than
non-exporting SMEs. We investigate the determinants of survival of exporting and non-exporting SMEs...
We test the sunk costs explanation for hysteresis in exports using a sample of Spanish manufacturing firms for the period
1990–2000, allowing for sunk costs to be different for small and large firms. The data are drawn from the Spanish Encuesta sobre Estrategias Empresariales. To obtain consistent estimates for sunk costs, we control for all other...
We use comparable micro level panel data for 14 countries and a set of identically specified empirical models to investigate the relationship between exports and productivity. Our overall results are in line with the big picture that is by now familiar from the literature: exporters are more productive than non-exporters when observed and unobserve...
This paper examines the determinants of firm survival. We use hazard models to test a number of hypotheses mainly drawn from
the Resource-Based Theory of the Firm. According to the Resource-Based View the ability of a firm to develop distinct capabilities
enhances its ability to adapt to the changing competitive environment and improves its surviva...
Since there exists in this literature a common interest to unravel the sources of both permanence in the self-employment status
and firm survival, the present chapter is devoted to provide guidelines to applied researchers about which methods are suitable
for any particular application related to self-employment and firm survival. Further, it shoul...
This volume provides a comprehensive review of the theoretical concepts and empirical models of entrepreneurship from a non-conventional perspective. Its main purpose is to contribute to the design of an efficient system of indicators of entrepreneurship and competitiveness. The existence of a gap between the theory of entrepreneurship and the meth...
We use comparable micro level panel data for 14 countries and a set of identically specified empirical models to investigate the relationship between exports and productivity. Our overall results are in line with the big picture that is by now familiar from the literature: Exporters are more productive than non-exporters when observed and unobserve...
In a symmetric differentiated experimental duopoly we test the ability of Price Matching Guarantees (PMG) to raise prices
above the competitive levels. PMG are introduced both as a market rule (the selling price is always the lowest posted price) and as a business strategy (subjects decide whether or not to offer them). Our results show that PMG le...
Two main findings in the trade literature are that exporters are better than non-exporters, and the existence of a high persistence in the export status. The evidence so far provides more support to the argument of the self-selection of the more efficient firms into exporting in presence of entry sunk costs, than to the existence of benefits attrib...
We analyse the growth of corporate R&D in the Spanish manufacturing sector through its decomposition into the extensive and intensive margins. These margins are decomposed into three distinct components: starting new R&D activities; R&D activities that survive or persist; and deepening existing R&D efforts. The data used is a panel of Spanish manuf...
This paper investigates the effects of a low-price guarantee (price-beating guarantee) on the patterns of price setting of three supermarkets using micro-level price data. Following recent theoretical developments, the paper analyzes the ability of low-price guarantees to sustain anticompetitive prices. My empirical analysis suggests instead that t...
This paper analyses the differences in total factor productivity between R&D investing firms and firms that do not undertake these activities. We allow for a two way relationship between R&D and productivity by applying non-parametric testing procedures and the concept of stochastic dominance. Firm data are drawn from the Spanish Encuesta sobre Est...
We report experimental results on duopoly pricing with and without price beating guarantees (PBG). In two control treatments, price beating is either imposed as an industry-wide rule or offered as a business strategy. Our major finding is that when price beating guarantees are imposed as a rule or offered as an option, effective prices are equal to...
En este trabajo examinamos las diferencias en la productividad total de los factores de las empresas que invierten en actividades de I+D frente a las que no invierten en dichas actividades. Estudiamos la posible relación bidireccional entre I+D y productividad analizando si son las empresas más productivas las que invierten en I+D y/o si el hecho d...
This paper aims to empirically analyse the determinants of the decision to export using a sample of Spanish manufacturing firms during the 1990s. The data are drawn from the Encuesta sobre Estrategias Empresariales. A panel data probit model is used that is estimated using maximum-likelihood techniques. The results show that regional and local spil...
In a symmetric differentiated experimental duopoly we test the ability of Price Matching Guarantees (PMG) to rise prices above the competitive levels. PMG is introduced both as a market institution (the effective selling price is always the lowest posted price) and as a strategic choice so subjects have to decide whether or not to offer it. Our res...
We start the survey by reviewing the implications of horizontal and vertical product differentiation on market structure under the assumption of single-product firms. Then, we analyse the main results of the multi-product firm models, both when variants are assumed differentiated in vertical attributes only and when variants are assumed differentia...
In this paper we experimentally test the ability of Price-Matching Guarantees (PMG) to rise prices above the competitive level. We implement three different treatments of symmetric duopolies to check the effect of PMG both as a market institution and as a business strategy. In the absence of any low-price guarantee, prices get close to the Bertrand...
This paper experimentally analyzes the effect of wage bargaining centralization (WBC) on macroeconomic performance. Our theoretical benchmark comes from that developed by Cukierman and Lippi (1999) to investigate the joint effects of monetary policy and labor market institutions on unemployment and inflation. We focus on the implications of two wel...
The introduction of VoIP telephony raises concerns about current regulatory practice. Access regulation has been designed for PSTN and the liberalization of the PSTN market. This paper explores the effects of access regulation of PSTN networks on consumers’ adoption of a new technology in the form of VoIP. It also discusses the link between access...
We study what keeps a firm continuously exporting once it has already entered in export markets. For this purpose, we use discrete time survival analyisis controlling for, among other things, unobserved individual heterogeneity. The dataset is a sample of Spanish manufacturing for 1990-2000. We find that unobserved individual heterogeneity is not r...
This paper investigates, using micro level price data, the determinants of the differences in price dispersion and intensity of price competition across the three quality variants sold at the UK\ supermarkets: branded products, high quality own brand products and low quality own brand products. The results of the analysi s confirm that intensity of...
In the UK, supermarkets face not only the competition of other supermarkets but also the competition of discounters. Whereas the physical characteristics of the products sold by supermarkets and discounters are almost identical, supermarkets provide a higher service quality than discounters. Using a micro-level data set of prices, we study the impl...
This paper analyses the determinants of persistence in the firms' decision to undertake R&D activities using firm level panel data. We estimate three discrete time (grouped data) proportional hazard models accounting for unobserved individual heterogeneity. The data used is a panel of Spanish manufacturing firms drawn from the Encuesta sobre Estrat...
In this paper we test for the presence of s unk costs in firms' R&D activities by analysing the persistence of these activities using firm level panel data. We develop and estimate a dynamic discrete choice model where each firm' current R&D expenditure is a function, among other factors, of its previous experience in performing R&D activities. The...
This paper directly analyses the effect of process innovations on firm total factor productivity growth, explicitly considering the impact of firm size in the nature of this relationship. In particular, we analyse whether firm size affects the life span of the impact of process innovations on productivity growth. The data are drawn from a Spanish s...
This paper tests the sunk costs explanation for hysteresis in exports using a sample of Spanish manufacturing firms for the period 1990-2000. The data are drawn from the Spanish Encuesta sobre Estrategias Empresariales. To obtain consistent estimates for sunk costs, we control for all other sources of persistence and use a dynamic random effects mu...
