Publications

The net-zero agreement on carbon emission from Paris 2015 gives a key role to fossil-free energy technologies with an expected multifold growth rate over the coming decades, when successively replacin…

The European Union (EU) is becoming more inward looking and more hesitant towards globalization. This paper examines recent transformations in EU's economic policies, with a focus on international tra…

Previous research indicates that firms pay a premium to poach workers from exporting firms if experience working for an internationally engaged firm reduces trade costs. Since international experience…

Chinese investment abroad has grown significantly in connection with the Belt and Road Initiative. This article tries to answer two questions: first, what considerations gave birth to the BRI? And sec…

We examine if international trade improves labor market integration of immigrants in Sweden. Immigrants participate substantially less than natives in the labor market. However, trading with a foreign…

Globalization affects the mix of jobs available in an economy and the rate at which workers gain skills. We develop a model in which firms differ in terms of productivity and workers differ in skills,…

Globalization has increased in recent decades, resulting in structural changes of production and labor demand. This paper examines how the increased global engagement of firms affects the structure of…

We show that the firm-size distribution is an important determinant of the relationship between an industry’s employment and output. A theoretical model predicts that changes in demand for an industry…

Global engagement can impact firm organization and the occupations firms need. We use a simple task-based model of the firm’s choice of occupational inputs to examine how that choice varies with globa…

We construct a task-based model of the firm’s choice of occupational inputs to examine how that choice varies with greater global engagement. We assume that more complex tasks are more costly to comple…

This paper focuses on the ability of the labor market to efficiently match heterogeneous workers to jobs within a given industry and the role that globalization plays in that process. Using matched wor…

We revisit the question how inward FDI and multinational ownership affect relative labor demand. Motivated by the recent literature that distinguish between skills and tasks, we argue that the impact…

The People's Republic of China (PRC) is currently promoting indigenous technology development through support of Chinese firms and, arguably, by restricting operations of foreign multinational firms.…

Many developing countries would like to increase employment in the formal sectors. One way to accomplish this goal may be to encourage the entrance of foreign firms. We examine employment growth in In…

Large segments of the rural Timorese population survive on subsistence farming characterized by simple production methods and low output. Broad-based improvements in Timorese living standards require…

Recent theoretical analysis suggests that a reduction in the cost of exporting increases the degree of assortative matching between workers and firms in export-oriented industries. Changes that reduce…

We examine the impact of cross-border acquisitions on intra-firm wage dispersion using a detailed Swedish linked employer-employee data set including data on all firms and about 50% of the Swedish lab…

Foreign direct investment (FDI) has been important in the growth and global integration of developing economies. Both Northeast and Southeast Asia, especially the latter, have been part of this develo…

This paper attempts to measure the size of South–South foreign direct investment (FDI) in developing East Asia and the trends in it, the characteristics of the investing countries, and the investments…

Science & Technology (S&T) is high on the Chinese policy agenda and the country aims at becoming an innovation-driven economy. Small firms have been important in technology development in othe…

China needs a substantial growth of modern-sector employment to absorb its huge supply of underemployed people and new labor market entrants. The present crisis with its massive layoffs of workers mak…

The increase in foreign direct investments raises concerns about labor market consequences in many countries. It is feared that multinational firms are inclined to shift jobs abroad and increase job vo…

Timor-Leste began its independence as one of the poorest nations in the world. Substantial progress has been made thereafter but the challenges for future development are numerous. High population gro…

This paper examines the effect of foreign direct investment (FDI) on employment in the Chinese manufacturing sector. As one of the world's largest recipients of FDI, China has arguably benefited from…

Most firms and plants in developing countries produce only for the domestic market and few are able to export. One plausible hypothesis is that foreign networks decrease export costs and that plants w…

Cambodia has been growing rapidly over the past few years, but remains one of the poorest countries in East Asia. This paper analyzes rural poverty in Cambodia to identify the factors that explain its…

Timor-Leste is among the youngest nations in the world. It began its independence under difficult circumstances: poverty is widespread, education is poor, the industrial sector is non-existent, and pol…

Numerous studies on firm-level data have reported higher average wages in foreign-owned firms than in domestically owned firms. This, however, does not necessarily imply that the individual worker's w…

This article examines the question of trust in Bosnia and Herzegovina with a special focus on the role of ethnicity. We find generalised trust to be low and declining in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Moreove…

National and International Spillovers from R&D: Comparing a Neoclassical and an Endogenous Growth Approach.— Two models where productivity growth is caused by spillovers from R&D are analyzed…