【主题】Uneven Firm Growth in a Globalized World
【报告人】隋晓梅（助理教授，香港大学）
【时间】2023年11月29日周三13:30-15:00
【地点】高等研究院232会议室
【语言】英文
【摘要】I study how globalization contributes to uneven firm growth and its implications for industrial concentration and aggregate productivity growth in OECD countries. Motivated by recent empirical evidence, I develop a two-country endogenous growth model with strategic innovation in both domestic and international markets. Globalization, modelled by decreasing trade iceberg costs and increasing international knowledge spillovers, elicits heterogeneous effects on firms, which depend on innovation specification and technological distance relative to domestic and foreign competitors. I estimate the model using a newly constructed cross-country firm-level patent dataset, which shows that firms do fewer innovations when they are more left behind the domestic or global technological frontier. In the estimated model, I find globalization triggers a stronger innovation response among leaders than domestic followers via the market size effect, inducing an increase in domestic concentration that depresses firm innovation via weaker domestic competition: followers and leaders reduce innovation due to discouragement and a diminishing escape-competition motive, respectively. The globalization-induced harsher foreign competition also reduces innovation via lower profits. Quantitatively, globalization significantly contributes to a rise in domestic concentration and a short-run increase in productivity growth followed by a long-run slowdown, primarily driven by weaker domestic competition. The increasing international knowledge spillover force of globalization not only dominates in magnitude but also provides a unique explanation for technological convergence among countries. This framework offers new insights into the interaction among antitrust, innovation, and trade policies, with implications explored through various policy counterfactuals.
【报告人简介】 Prof. Xiaomei Sui joined the University of Hong Kong in 2023 as an Assistant Professor in Economics. Her research interests primarily focus on international economics and macroeconomics. Currently, her research delves into the realm of heterogeneous firm decision-making, examining how these decisions diverge within different market environments. She also investigates the impact of these decisions on resource allocation, market structure, and economic development and growth, specifically from the perspective of an open economy.
