Abstract
This study examines how firms’ CO2 emission intensity (CEI) responds to trade shocks. Changes in market conditions, such as trade shocks, are believed to drive specialization toward core products, as well as favor technology upgrades that affect productivity and pollution abatement. I develop a unified framework that decomposes within-firm changes in CEI into: (i) the relative share of production across products, (ii) factor-neutral physical productivity (TFPQ), and (iii) abatement. The latter is defined as a factor-augmenting productivity process that reduces CO2 emissions relative to other inputs. I then study the effects of an exogenous change in trade flows on each component. Using data on German manufacturing firms, I analyze the impact of increased trade flows from Eastern Europe and China to Germany between 1995 and 2008. I find that cross-sectional CEI heterogeneity is driven by CO2-abatement technology rather than TFPQ; over time, firms become cleaner through TFPQ gains and portfolio shifts even as the abatement component worsens, consistent with efficiency-enhancing, energy-intensive upgrades. Export-market expansion induces this pattern (higher TFPQ, weaker abatement), while stronger import competition erodes abatement, coherently with scale losses, yet reallocates toward cleaner core products. Effects are highly heterogeneous and larger for more productive firms.
"Local News, Fear and Democracy. Evidence from France." Co-authored with Giulia Leila Travaglini.
Abstract
France held the first round of municipal elections on 15 March 2020, at a time when Covid-19 had reached only some departments, and with varying intensity. Exploiting the exogenous temporal and geographical variation in the spread of the virus, we identify the effects of fear of Covid-19 on electoral outcomes. Using a difference-in-differences approach, we show that the number of Covid-19 cases in a department had a negative effect on turnout, even after controlling for pre-trends. In addition, we categorize the content and emotional framing of all front pages of French local newspapers in the month preceding the elections. Thanks to a shift-share instrumental strategy, we identify the effect of exposure to different framing of Covid-19 content in the local news. We also provide evidence on the role of government restrictions such as school closures in shaping perceptions of the Covid-19 threat. Finally, we study the impact of Covid-19 events on political outcomes, finding evidence of a preference shift toward platforms that emphasize the need for “strong and stable governments” or that appeal to “national solidarity.”
Presented at American Political Science Association (APSA) 2022.