June 13 (Thr) Sungwan Hong (Pennsylvania State University) 17:10–18:40, Place: IER Conference room
Title: Green Industrial Policies and Energy Transition in the Globalized Economy
Abstract: Current transition to renewable energies relies on trade in renewable energy equipment (such as solar panels and wind turbines). Motivated by this, this paper studies the impact of green industrial policies on the energy transition and welfare in a globalized economy. Should countries subsidize renewable energy consumption or renewable energy equipment production? What is the role of trade policies? To answer these questions, I develop a dynamic trade model that incorporates tradable renewable energy equipment. The rate of transition hinges on the heterogeneity in renewable potentials and comparative advantage in renewable equipment production across countries, facilitated by trade. The quantitative analysis indicates that the Inflation Reduction Act speeds up the transition, but the relative US productivity growth in renewable energy equipment is mitigated without a trade policy.
August 1 (Thr) Wolfgang Keller (University of Colorado at Boulder) 15:30–17:00, Place: IER Conference room
Title: Co-location of Production and Innovation: Evidence from the United States
Abstract: Manufacturers perform the majority of US patenting and R&D. The decades-long decline of US manufacturing employment raises concerns that US innovation will follow. We investigate the relationship between between physical production and innovation by constructing a new dataset linking all US firms and their establishments to location geocodes and innovative activities. Pre- liminary results indicate that while firms with both manufacturing and innovation establishments exhibit higher patenting when these facilities are more spatially proximate, manufacturing firms’ overall contribution to US innovation declines steadily and substantially over time. Moreover, cohorts of firms permanently exiting manufacturing in the 1990s and 2000s continue to patent at their prior pace.
September 26 (Thr) Ari Kokko (Copenhagen Business School) and Patrik Tingvall (Swedish National Board of Trade) 15:15–18:00 Place: IER Conference room
Ari Kokko (Copenhagen Business School) 15:15-16:30
Title: Economic Complexity of Domestic and Foreign-Owned Manufacturing Firms in Vietnam
Patrik Tingvall (Swedish National Board of Trade) 16:45–18:00
Title: A Comparison of EU, US, and Chinese Subsidies Using the GTA Database
December 18 (Wed) 9:30–19:00, Place: Research project room (#307) on the 3rd floor of the 3rd Research Building
U. Amsterdam and Hitotsubashi-U Joint-Workshop on Urban Economics and Real Estate Studies 2024
December 26 (Thr) Shinnosuke Kikuchi (MIT) 17:10–18:40, Place: IER Conference room
Title: Does Skill Abundance Still Matter? The Evolution of Comparative Advantage in the 21st Century
Abstract: This paper documents that skill-abundant countries no longer have a comparative advantage in skill-intensive sectors. While this empirical relationship was strong in the 1980s, it weakened in the 1990s and disappeared by the 2000s. The decline is more pronounced in countries and sectors with higher automation. I find no such heterogeneous effects among countries and sectors more exposed to offshoring. Using a quantitative trade model incorporating automation and offshoring, I confirm that the observed changes in automation can account for the evolution of comparative advantage while observed changes in offshoring cannot. I conclude by revisiting the relationships between globalization, technology, and inequality through this model. Automation increases skill premia in developed countries with high automation and also raises welfare globally, whereas offshoring leads to smaller, more evenly distributed welfare gains.