The Challenge of Trade Adjustment in Greece

Author(s):  
Costas Arkolakis ◽  
Aristos Doxiadis ◽  
Galenianos Manolis

Greece's trade deficit declined by 10 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) between 2007 and 2012, removing one of the great economic imbalances of the pre-crisis years. However, this reduction was achieved exclusively through import compression while exports fell over that period, thereby worsening the economic crisis. This chapter studies Greece's export underperformance in comparison to Ireland, Portugal and Spain as well as Greece's own pre-crisis experience. The main findings are that (1) given past performance, Greece's exports should have increased by 25 percent, rather than drop by 5 percent between 2007 and 2012; (2) labor markets have adjusted to the new economic environment; (3) product markets did not adjust, hindering the recovery of competitiveness; (4) export underperformance is responsible for a third of the decline in GDP since 2007. The chapter concludes that the business environment and firm size distribution in Greece are also hindering the necessary adjustment.

2015 ◽  
pp. 29-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert J. Bennett ◽  
Gill Newton

This article presents the method and first results of using the 1881 England and Wales Census Enumerators' Books (CEBs) to identify and extract employer records using occupational information. Over 230,000 employers are identified, of which about four fifths employ others. Important sub-groups are also identified of the own account selfemployed, company proprietors, directors and partnerships. The article demonstrates the feasibility of the method and uses the example of the building industry to illustrate firm-size distribution at parish level across England and Wales. The paper indicates the applicability of the extraction method to other censuses, which is now possible using the recently released I-CeM database. The paper also demonstrates some difficulties in the database for 1881, including data keying and coding errors, ranging from 0.5 to 5.5 per cent of entries for larger businesses. Gender miscoding appears to be a systematic error of about 0.7 per 1,000 people. The analysis suggests that where small or atypical sample groups are involved, users of the census database should make detailed checks with manuscript CEBs.


2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 61-73
Author(s):  
Wei Zhang ◽  
Yan-Chun Zhu ◽  
Jian-Bo Wen ◽  
Yi-Jie Zhuang

Studies on the firm's size distribution (FSD) can set a good foundation to know about the growth path and mechanism of e-commerce firms. The purpose of this paper is to understand features of the China's listed e-commerce firms by testing Gibrat's law and Zipf's law within the Internet sectors. From a macroscopic perspective, with the approach of OLS estimation, Zipf's coefficient of the FSD is calculated to test whether Zipf's law holds. From a microscopic perspective, the relationship between e-commerce firm size and growth is explored by quantile regression method. The results indicate that from 2005 to 2014, Zipf's law cannot be rejected, with the relationship changing over time, Gibrat's law holds partly. It implies that competition status among China's e-commerce firms becomes more stable.


2014 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zeina Alsharkas

Abstract This paper investigates the effects of firm size, competition and access to finance on the innovation performance of that firm. After a review of the relevant literature, three logit models are proposed and tested. The empirical analysis is based on the business environment and enterprise performance survey (BEEPS) for 1053 enterprises from twenty-six countries in years 2002 and 2005. Our results suggest a positive and statistically significant relationship between firm size and innovation. We also find a positive relationship between both competition and access to finance with innovation.


2019 ◽  
Vol 148 (2) ◽  
pp. 569-598
Author(s):  
Lucia Alessi ◽  
Peter Benczur ◽  
Francesca Campolongo ◽  
Jessica Cariboni ◽  
Anna Rita Manca ◽  
...  

AbstractBased on the JRC conceptual framework for resilience (Manca et al. in Building a Scientific Narrative Towards a More Resilient EU Society, JRC Science for Policy Report, JRC28548, 2017), this study presents an empirical analysis of the resilience of EU Member States to the recent financial and economic crisis. We address two main research questions: (1) Which countries had a resilient outcome, in terms of both shock absorption during the crisis and recovery in its aftermath? (2) Are there pre-determined country characteristics that help to explain resilient performance? To address these questions, we first select 34 key indicators of economic performance and societal well-being, going well beyond the merely economic growth perspective. Resilience is then measured by the properties of the joint dynamic response of these variables to the crisis shock at different time horizons. Our results demonstrate substantial differences between countries in each of the resilience capacities considered. Regression analysis also reveals that certain predetermined characteristics—such as government expenditures on social protection, political stability or a favourable business environment—are strongly associated with resilient outcomes. Our methodology and findings offer lessons for monitoring resilience and for entry points for effective policy interventions in the future.


2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hideaki Aoyama ◽  
Lars Grüne ◽  
Willi Semmler ◽  
Yoshi Fujiwara ◽  
Wataru Souma

We study empirically and analytically growth and fluctuation of firm size distribution. An empirical analysis is carried out on a US data set on firm size, with emphasis on one-time distribution as well as growth-rate probability distribution. Both Pareto's law and Gibrat's law are often used to study firm size distribution. Their theoretical relationship is discussed, and it is shown how they are complementable with a bimodal distribution of firm size. We introduce economic mechanisms that suggest a bimodal distribution of firm size in the long run. The mechanisms we study have been known in the economic literature since long. Yet, they have not been studied in the context of a dynamic decision problem of the firm. Allowing for these mechanism thus will give rise to heterogeneity of firms with respect to certain characteristics. We then present different types of tests on US data on firm size which indicate a bimodal distribution of firm size.


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