The importance of firm heterogeneity for countries’ economic performance
Alessandra Bonfiglioli, Rosario Crinò and Gino Gancia explore how heterogeneity in firms’ attributes, quality and efficiency impact GDP.
Economic Uncertainty and Structural Reforms
Can economic uncertainty make it easier for politicians to implement painful but beneficial reforms? Alessandra Bonfiglioli and Gino Gancia find evidence that indeed this is the case.
Take the risk…you might become an exporter!
Alessandra Bonfiglioli and Gino Gancia explore how export opportunities affect the choices of firms, their characteristics, and the wages of their workers.
The culture of effort and the US-EU divide in labour market and firm-level outcomes
Barcelona GSE research on VoxEU.org by Alessandra Bonfiglioli and Gino Gancia
Differences in labour market and firm statistics between the US and Europe are easy to dismiss as cultural. This column applies an equilibrium model of worker screening and effort to cross-country data, showing that a large chunk of observed differences can be explained by the strategic interaction between firm and worker strategies. Evidence suggests that the US is in a high-screening, high-effort equilibrium, while southern Europe is in the complementary equilibrium. Perhaps culture is more economic than we might assume.
