Over recent decades, rising globalization and international trade have profoundly reshaped the competitive environment faced by firms and the organization of production across countries and markets. These changes have had far-reaching implications for local economies and individual lives and have become a central topic of debate in both the public sphere and academic research. Globalization places the businesses of many industries in a new competitive environment, from which some emerge stronger, more productive, and in which others perish.
The overarching theme of my research is how international trade and the macroeconomic environment affect firms, industries, and labor markets.
In a series of recent publications, I provide a detailed exploration of how globalization, in the form of import competition, induces adaptation in manufacturing firms in advanced economies (AEJ: App., 2014) as well as in emerging markets (JDE, 2013), generates often costly worker transitions across sectors and occupations (ReStat, 2018), and drives broader societal transformations, including polarization (JIE, 2023) and changes in family patterns (RESTUD, 2022).
In other work I examine how market frictions affect the business environment in emerging economies, focusing on credit market imperfections (IER, 2015) and drug-related violence (WBER, 2025).
My current research agenda focuses on adjustments in global value chains in the new era of rising protectionism and automation. The first publication in this line of research is forthcoming in ReStat.
My current research projects include:
Elsewhere in North America: How U.S. Tariffs on China Boosted Mexico's Manufacturing Employment and Output.
Technology Hubs or Backwater? Lessons on Structural Change from Germany’s Coal Regions, with Janssen, Keller, and Vallizadeh.
Entry and Exit of Multinationals in Mexico in Response to the US-China Trade War