Working Papers:

Learning Trade Opportunities through Production Network (2024) (with F. Nutarelli,  F. Serti, and F. Vega-Redondo)
Abstract: Using data on the Spanish firm-level production network we show that firms learn about international trade opportunities and related business know-how from their production network peers. Our identification strategy leverages the panel structure of the data, import origin variation, and network structure. We find evidence of both upstream and downstream network effects, even after accounting for sectoral and geographical spillovers.  Larger firms are better at absorbing valuable information but worse at disseminating it. Connections with geographically distant firms provide more useful information to start importing.

Promotion through Connections: Favors or Information? (2024)(with Yann Bramoullé) [revise & resubmit]
Abstract: Connections appear to be helpful in many contexts, such as obtaining a job, a promotion, a grant, a loan, or publishing a paper. This may be due either to favoritism or to information conveyed by connections. Attempts at identifying both effects have relied on measures of true quality, generally built from data collected long after promotion. Building on earlier work on discrimination, we propose a new method to identify favors and information from data collected at the time of promotion. Under weak assumptions, we show that promotion decisions for connected candidates look more random to the econometrician due to the information channel. We derive new identification results and estimate the strength of the two effects. We adapt the control function approach to address the issue of the selection into connections. Applying our methodology to academic promotions in Spain and Italy and political advancements in China, we find evidence that connections may convey information and attract favors.

Production and Financial Networks in Interplay: Crisis Evidence from Supplier-Customer and Credit Registers (2023) (with G. Jiménez, E. Moral-Benito, J-L. Peydró, F. Vega-Redondo)[revise & resubmit]
Abstract: We show that bank credit shocks to firms propagate upstream and downstream along the production network, with stronger effects for upstream than downstream propagation. Our identification strategy relies on: (i) administrative datasets from Spain on supplier-customer transactions and bank loans; (ii) a standard operationalization of bank credit-supply shocks during the Global Financial Crisis; and (iii) a general equilibrium model of an interfirm production network economy with financial frictions that is structurally estimated. Our results indicate that the network propagation leads to a 50% increase in the aggregate effects of bank credit supply shocks on GDP growth, with equally important first-order versus higher-order network effects. 

Published and accepted papers:

Measuring the Input Rank in Global Supply Networks (2023)  (with  L. Fattorini and A. Rungi) The World Economy, Forthcoming

Polarization in Networks: Identification-alienation Framework (2022), with  A. Ozkes,  Journal of Mathematical Economics.

A Noncooperative Model of Contest Network Formation (2021),   Journal of Public Economic Theory.

Contagious Disruptions and Complexity Traps in Economic Development (2017),  with Charlie Brummitt, Paolo Pin, Matthew H. Bonds, and Fernando Vega-Redondo, Nature Human Behavior.  Press coverage:  New Scientist, MIT Technology Review.

Older working papers:

Production Networks (with Fernando Vega-Redondo) (2016) 

In progress:

A screening role of enforcement institutions
Active peer pressure