Viktoriia Zezerova


Welcome! I am a 6th-year PhD candidate in Economics at Pennsylvania State University. 

My research interests are in International Economics, Empirical Industrial Organization, and Applied Microeconomics.

I am on the Job Market in the 2024-2025 academic year.

My CV is available here.  

Email: vmz5027@psu.edu 

Job Market Paper


Abstract: What is the role of market power in shaping gains from international trade? How large are the welfare losses due to markup-driven misallocations? To address these questions, I examine how firms’ markups, prices, and global sourcing decisions respond to the trade liberalization episode in Colombia in 2010. Using a difference-in-differences approach with granular transaction-level and firm-level data, I find that foreign exporters did not fully pass through tariff reductions to Colombian consumers, opting to raise markups. For Colombian firms, output trade liberalization led to pro-competitive gains by increasing foreign competition, and reducing markups among exposed firms. In contrast, input trade liberalization enabled import-intensive firms to increase their markups, partially offsetting the competitive benefits of output trade liberalization. To assess the total effects of the reform, I develop an open-economy model with roundabout production and global sourcing. The analysis reveals that, while trade liberalization ultimately benefited consumers, the anti-competitive effects of input trade liberalization dampened these gains decreasing welfare gains. The welfare effect of reform would be 33% higher in the absence of import intensity heterogeneity.



Contact Information 

Email: vmz5027@psu.edu

Phone: +1-814-954-2397