Thèse en cours : International Trade and Welfare – Analysis of Firms’ Markups and Innovation Activity

Université Paris Dauphine
Sous la direction de Gianluca Orefice
Date d’inscription : Octobre 2022

This doctoral project analyzes the effects of international trade on firms’ margins and innovation activity. The literature has shown a considerable increase in margins around the world. By lowering production costs through intermediate goods and increasing competition in final goods market, the exchange of goods across international borders can have a considerable impact on firms’ margins, either positively or negatively. A change in the gap between prices and costs of production at an aggregate level has implications for other economic indicators, such as the labor share of GDP, the profit rate of firms, or inequality. This doctoral project is built around three chapters. The first chapter analyzes the effect of participation in global value chains on firms’ margins at a close to global level. The second chapter analyzes the effect of an increase in import penetration on innovation, comparing France and Germany. The study focuses on the mechanism of employment adjustment along comparative advantages lines. The analysis of the effect of international trade on innovation is an important part of this thesis as innovation could have an impact on margins, in which case a change in margins may be the result of innovation and not of trade. Finally, the third chapter focuses on the effect of an increase in imports on the margins of manufacturing firms in France.