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This paper assesses the relationship between import competition and firm‐level markups by examining the imports of intermediate and final goods. Using a rich firm‐level dataset of French food companies from 2001 to 2013, we find that, on average, increased final goods import competition (intermediate inputs) is negatively (positively) associated with firm‐level markups. These results are consistent with the trade models that predict the pro‐competitive effects of trade and the incomplete cost pass‐through to prices. Importantly, the reduction in markups due to the pro‐competitive effect of trade tends to be counterbalanced by the increase in markups induced by incomplete pass‐through. Our empirical analysis uncovers considerable heterogeneity in the effects of output and input import competition on markups. Our results particularly reveal that firm size and industry market structure (i.e. concentration) are key determinants of how firm‐level markups respond to import competition.
Daniele Curzi; Maria Garrone; Alessandro Olper. Import Competition and Firm Markups in the Food Industry. American Journal of Agricultural Economics 2020, 103, 1433 -1453.
AMA StyleDaniele Curzi, Maria Garrone, Alessandro Olper. Import Competition and Firm Markups in the Food Industry. American Journal of Agricultural Economics. 2020; 103 (4):1433-1453.
Chicago/Turabian StyleDaniele Curzi; Maria Garrone; Alessandro Olper. 2020. "Import Competition and Firm Markups in the Food Industry." American Journal of Agricultural Economics 103, no. 4: 1433-1453.
This paper studies the effect of agri-environmental measures (AEMs) in improving greener farming practices. We focus on the quantification of the effectiveness of AEMs implemented in the Rural Development Programme of the Lombardy Region, during the 2007–2013 programming period. Our work attempts to address the well-known potential failures of these kinds of policy instruments – such as adverse selection effects – by relying on an innovative matching procedure, the coarsened exact matching (CEM). This methodology presents a number of interesting properties that are worth considering in policy-evaluation analyses. Our empirical analysis focuses on three AEM schemes protecting and enhancing the environment, Crops diversification, Grassland maintenance and Organic farming. Overall, our results suggest that AEMs were apparently effective in improving the farms’ environmental performances. However, our preliminary cost-benefit analysis highlights that the costs of implementing this policy, when compared to the additional results obtained, tend to be quite large.
Danilo Bertoni; Daniele Curzi; Giacomo Aletti; Alessandro Olper. Estimating the effects of agri-environmental measures using difference-in-difference coarsened exact matching. Food Policy 2019, 90, 101790 .
AMA StyleDanilo Bertoni, Daniele Curzi, Giacomo Aletti, Alessandro Olper. Estimating the effects of agri-environmental measures using difference-in-difference coarsened exact matching. Food Policy. 2019; 90 ():101790.
Chicago/Turabian StyleDanilo Bertoni; Daniele Curzi; Giacomo Aletti; Alessandro Olper. 2019. "Estimating the effects of agri-environmental measures using difference-in-difference coarsened exact matching." Food Policy 90, no. : 101790.
The agro‐food sector has experienced a profound transformation of contractual arrangements along the value chain, coinciding with important technological innovations and product quality upgrading. Our understanding of the impact that this transformation has had on trade flows in the agricultural sector is very limited. In particular, we have limited knowledge about the extent to which the patterns in agro‐food trade have been driven by the quality of contractual institutions. Using existing measures which capture the sensitivity of agro‐food products to contractual imperfections, we show that countries with better contract enforcement specialise in the production of food which requires higher level of relationship‐specific investments. We also find that countries with better contracting institutions and producing contract‐intensive goods specialise in exporting high quality foods. In addition, we show that the quality of contracting institutions might importantly affect the process of product quality upgrading.
Jan Fałkowski; Daniele Curzi; Alessandro Olper. Contracting Institutions, Agro‐food Trade and Product Quality. Journal of Agricultural Economics 2018, 70, 749 -770.
AMA StyleJan Fałkowski, Daniele Curzi, Alessandro Olper. Contracting Institutions, Agro‐food Trade and Product Quality. Journal of Agricultural Economics. 2018; 70 (3):749-770.
Chicago/Turabian StyleJan Fałkowski; Daniele Curzi; Alessandro Olper. 2018. "Contracting Institutions, Agro‐food Trade and Product Quality." Journal of Agricultural Economics 70, no. 3: 749-770.
Alessandro Olper; Daniele Curzi; Johan Swinnen. Trade liberalization and child mortality: A Synthetic Control Method. World Development 2018, 110, 394 -410.
AMA StyleAlessandro Olper, Daniele Curzi, Johan Swinnen. Trade liberalization and child mortality: A Synthetic Control Method. World Development. 2018; 110 ():394-410.
Chicago/Turabian StyleAlessandro Olper; Daniele Curzi; Johan Swinnen. 2018. "Trade liberalization and child mortality: A Synthetic Control Method." World Development 110, no. : 394-410.
This article studies the effect of the lack of international harmonization in agri-food standards on international trade flows focusing on the European Union (EU). The EU is characterized by high level of protectionism, which makes it an ideal case study. We measure the differences in countries’ level of ‘protectionism’ by applying an index of aggregation of non-tariff measures to data on maximum residue levels on pesticides and veterinary drugs allowed by countries on agri-food products. The restrictiveness of countries standards’ is compared with the one imposed by the Codex Alimentarius, which is considered as non-protectionist. The EU emerges as the most rigorous standards setter. The higher standards imposed by the EU affect in particular imports from developing countries, while it facilitates its exports, irrespective of the level of development and standard restrictiveness set by the importing countries.
Daniele Curzi; Marsela Luarasi; Valentina Raimondi; Alessandro Olper. The (lack of) international harmonization of EU standards: import and export effects in developed versus developing countries. Applied Economics Letters 2018, 25, 1552 -1556.
AMA StyleDaniele Curzi, Marsela Luarasi, Valentina Raimondi, Alessandro Olper. The (lack of) international harmonization of EU standards: import and export effects in developed versus developing countries. Applied Economics Letters. 2018; 25 (21):1552-1556.
Chicago/Turabian StyleDaniele Curzi; Marsela Luarasi; Valentina Raimondi; Alessandro Olper. 2018. "The (lack of) international harmonization of EU standards: import and export effects in developed versus developing countries." Applied Economics Letters 25, no. 21: 1552-1556.
Alessandro Olper; Daniele Curzi; Johan F. M. Swinnen. Trade Liberalization and Child Mortality: A Synthetic Control Method. SSRN Electronic Journal 2017, 1 .
AMA StyleAlessandro Olper, Daniele Curzi, Johan F. M. Swinnen. Trade Liberalization and Child Mortality: A Synthetic Control Method. SSRN Electronic Journal. 2017; ():1.
Chicago/Turabian StyleAlessandro Olper; Daniele Curzi; Johan F. M. Swinnen. 2017. "Trade Liberalization and Child Mortality: A Synthetic Control Method." SSRN Electronic Journal , no. : 1.
We study the causal effect of trade liberalization on child mortality by exploiting 41 policy reform experiments in the 1960-2010 period. The Synthetic Control Method for comparative case studies allows to compare at the country level the trajectory of post-reform health outcomes of treated countries (those which experienced trade liberalization) with the trajectory of a combination of similar but untreated countries. In contrast with previous findings, we find that the effect of trade liberalization on health outcomes displays a huge heterogeneity, both in the direction and the magnitude of the estimated effect. Among the 41 investigated cases, 19 displayed a significant reduction in child mortality after trade liberalization. In 19 cases there was no significant effect, while in three cases we found a significant worsening in child mortality after trade liberalization. Trade reforms in democracies, in middle income countries and which reduced taxation in agriculture reduce child mortality more.
Alessandro Olper; Daniele Curzi; Jo Swinnen. Trade liberalization and child mortality: a synthetic control method. 2017, 1 .
AMA StyleAlessandro Olper, Daniele Curzi, Jo Swinnen. Trade liberalization and child mortality: a synthetic control method. . 2017; ():1.
Chicago/Turabian StyleAlessandro Olper; Daniele Curzi; Jo Swinnen. 2017. "Trade liberalization and child mortality: a synthetic control method." , no. : 1.
We study the causal effect of trade liberalization on child mortality by exploiting 41 policy reform experiments in the 1960-2010 period. The Synthetic Control Method for comparative case studies allows to compare at the country level the trajectory of post-reform health outcomes of treated countries (those which experienced trade liberalization) with the trajectory of a combination of similar but untreated countries. In contrast with previous findings, we find that the effect of trade liberalization on health outcomes displays a huge heterogeneity, both in the direction and the magnitude of the estimated effect. Among the 41 investigated cases, 19 displayed a significant reduction in child mortality after trade liberalization. In 19 cases there was no significant effect, while in three cases we found a significant worsening in child mortality after trade liberalization. Trade reforms in democracies, in middle income countries and which reduced taxation in agriculture reduce child mortality more.
Alessandro Olper; Daniele Curzi; Johan Swinnen. Trade Liberalization and Child Mortality: A Synthetic Control Method. 2017, 1 .
AMA StyleAlessandro Olper, Daniele Curzi, Johan Swinnen. Trade Liberalization and Child Mortality: A Synthetic Control Method. . 2017; ():1.
Chicago/Turabian StyleAlessandro Olper; Daniele Curzi; Johan Swinnen. 2017. "Trade Liberalization and Child Mortality: A Synthetic Control Method." , no. : 1.
We study the causal effect of trade liberalization on child mortality by exploiting 41 policy reform experiments in the 1960-2010 period. The Synthetic Control Method for comparative case studies allows to compare at the country level the trajectory of post-reform health outcomes of treated countries (those which experienced trade liberalization) with the trajectory of a combination of similar but untreated countries. In contrast with previous findings, we find that the effect of trade liberalization on health outcomes displays a huge heterogeneity, both in the direction and the magnitude of the estimated effect. Among the 41 investigated cases, 19 displayed a significant reduction in child mortality after trade liberalization. In 19 cases there was no significant effect, while in three cases we found a significant worsening in child mortality after trade liberalization. Trade reforms in democracies, in middle income countries and which reduced taxation in agriculture reduce child mortality more.
Alessandro Olper; Daniele Curzi; Jo Swinnen. Trade liberalization and child mortality: a synthetic control method. 2017, 1 .
AMA StyleAlessandro Olper, Daniele Curzi, Jo Swinnen. Trade liberalization and child mortality: a synthetic control method. . 2017; ():1.
Chicago/Turabian StyleAlessandro Olper; Daniele Curzi; Jo Swinnen. 2017. "Trade liberalization and child mortality: a synthetic control method." , no. : 1.
Hannah Pieters; Daniele Curzi; Alessandro Olper; Johan Swinnen. Democratic reforms and health: interpreting causal estimates – Authors' reply. The Lancet Global Health 2016, 4, e905 .
AMA StyleHannah Pieters, Daniele Curzi, Alessandro Olper, Johan Swinnen. Democratic reforms and health: interpreting causal estimates – Authors' reply. The Lancet Global Health. 2016; 4 (12):e905.
Chicago/Turabian StyleHannah Pieters; Daniele Curzi; Alessandro Olper; Johan Swinnen. 2016. "Democratic reforms and health: interpreting causal estimates – Authors' reply." The Lancet Global Health 4, no. 12: e905.
Imported goods play a central role in determining the gains from trade. Using detailed trade and firm-level data for Italy and France, we investigate the relationship between trade integration, imported intermediate inputs and firm performance in the food industry. Our main findings show that an increase in import competition spurs firm-level productivity growth. Furthermore, the productivity growth effect attributable to imported intermediate inputs is significantly stronger than the effect due to imported final products. In addition, we find that new imported inputs are of particular importance, especially for Italian food firms, though less so for the French firms. Finally, the productivity growth effect of trade integration tends to be asymmetric across firms: more productive firms gain more from trade integration. These stylised facts have interesting policy implications.
Alessandro Olper; Daniele Curzi; Valentina Raimondi. Imported Intermediate Inputs and Firms’ Productivity Growth: Evidence from the Food Industry. Journal of Agricultural Economics 2016, 68, 280 -300.
AMA StyleAlessandro Olper, Daniele Curzi, Valentina Raimondi. Imported Intermediate Inputs and Firms’ Productivity Growth: Evidence from the Food Industry. Journal of Agricultural Economics. 2016; 68 (1):280-300.
Chicago/Turabian StyleAlessandro Olper; Daniele Curzi; Valentina Raimondi. 2016. "Imported Intermediate Inputs and Firms’ Productivity Growth: Evidence from the Food Industry." Journal of Agricultural Economics 68, no. 1: 280-300.
As the recent contributions to the literature show, institutional differences are an important source of comparative advantage. Yet our understanding of the exact mechanisms through which institutions affect trade flows is still rather limited. In this paper, focusing on food sector, we examine a particular channel through which this effect may occur. Using detailed country-product data, we focus on the relationship between the quality of contracting institutions and product quality, which is commonly perceived as a key feature of how countries specialise in production. In line with the existing theoretical arguments, we find that product quality improvements, which can proxy for an adoption of more advanced technologies, are associated with products made in countries-industries characterised by less contractual incompleteness and characterised by greater initial level of technological complementarities between intermediate inputs.
Jan Fałkowski; Daniele Curzi; Alessandro Olper. Contract (in)completeness, product quality and trade – evidence from the food industry. 2016, 1 .
AMA StyleJan Fałkowski, Daniele Curzi, Alessandro Olper. Contract (in)completeness, product quality and trade – evidence from the food industry. . 2016; ():1.
Chicago/Turabian StyleJan Fałkowski; Daniele Curzi; Alessandro Olper. 2016. "Contract (in)completeness, product quality and trade – evidence from the food industry." , no. : 1.
Daniele Curzi; Lucia Pacca. Price, quality and trade costs in the food sector. Food Policy 2015, 55, 147 -158.
AMA StyleDaniele Curzi, Lucia Pacca. Price, quality and trade costs in the food sector. Food Policy. 2015; 55 ():147-158.
Chicago/Turabian StyleDaniele Curzi; Lucia Pacca. 2015. "Price, quality and trade costs in the food sector." Food Policy 55, no. : 147-158.
Recent developments in international trade theory have placed growing emphasis on the quality of products, showing that it affects countries’ export performances. However, as quality is unobservable, a measurement problem emerges. In this paper we apply some of the most recent methods to estimate quality of traded products. We focus on the food sector, where the growing attention on quality and safety issues is leading to an increase in the demand for high quality products. In the first part of our empirical analysis, we investigate the properties of the estimated qualities. We find that, in contrast with what often is assumed in the literature, quality and prices are imperfectly correlated. The second empirical section is dedicated to the study of the relationship between price vs. quality and trade costs. It emerges that the price and the quality of food exports are influenced differently by ad valorem and specific trade costs.
Daniele Curzi; Lucia Pacca. Price, Quality and Trade Costs in the Food Sector. 2015, 1 .
AMA StyleDaniele Curzi, Lucia Pacca. Price, Quality and Trade Costs in the Food Sector. . 2015; ():1.
Chicago/Turabian StyleDaniele Curzi; Lucia Pacca. 2015. "Price, Quality and Trade Costs in the Food Sector." , no. : 1.
The aim of this contribution is to study empirically the effect of trade liberalization on productivity growth exploiting a large micro-dataset of more than 20,000 French and Italian food firms, over the 2004-2012 period. This relationship has been studied focusing on import penetration at both industry and upstream sectors level, to investigate the role played by imports in intermediate inputs. Main findings show that import penetration in both final products and intermediate inputs systematically contributed to firm-level productivity growth. Yet, the productivity growth effect induced by import penetration in upstream sectors is 10 times higher than the one at the industry level. Horizontal import competition coming from the EU15 and OECD countries exerts the strongest effect on productivity growth. By contrast, when vertical import penetration is considered, also sourcing intermediate inputs from emerging markets appears important for firms’ productivity growth. Finally, we also find a strong confirmation that the effects of import penetration are increasing with the initial level of firms’ productivity. All these stylized facts may have interesting policy implications.
Alessandro Olper; Daniele Curzi; Valentina Raimondi. Import Penetration, Intermediate Inputs and Firms’ Productivity in the EU Food Industry. 2015, 1 .
AMA StyleAlessandro Olper, Daniele Curzi, Valentina Raimondi. Import Penetration, Intermediate Inputs and Firms’ Productivity in the EU Food Industry. . 2015; ():1.
Chicago/Turabian StyleAlessandro Olper; Daniele Curzi; Valentina Raimondi. 2015. "Import Penetration, Intermediate Inputs and Firms’ Productivity in the EU Food Industry." , no. : 1.
This paper investigates the causal effect of trade liberalization on children mortality by exploiting 40 policy reform experiments spanning the 1960-2010 period. We use a new approach – the Synthetic Control Method – for comparative case studies. Using this method we assess at the country level the trajectory of post-reform health outcomes of treated countries, which experienced a trade liberalization, with the trajectory of a combination of similar untreated countries. Contrary to previous findings, we showed that the effect of trade liberalization on health outcomes display a huge heterogeneity both in the direction and the magnitude of the effect. Among the 40 investigated case studies, 20 displayed a reduction in children mortality after a trade liberalization, and the majority of these are statistically significant. In 18 country casestudies we did not find any relevant effect, while in two cases ‒ South Africa and Mauritania ‒ we found a strong statistically significant worsening in child mortality after trade liberalization. Yet, the underline reasons of these negative effects are driven by very different situations.
Alessandro Olper; Daniele Curzi; Jo Swinnen. Trade Liberalization and Child Mortality: A Synthetic Control Method. 2015, 1 .
AMA StyleAlessandro Olper, Daniele Curzi, Jo Swinnen. Trade Liberalization and Child Mortality: A Synthetic Control Method. . 2015; ():1.
Chicago/Turabian StyleAlessandro Olper; Daniele Curzi; Jo Swinnen. 2015. "Trade Liberalization and Child Mortality: A Synthetic Control Method." , no. : 1.
Alessandro Olper; Lucia Pacca; Daniele Curzi. Trade, import competition and productivity growth in the food industry. Food Policy 2014, 49, 71 -83.
AMA StyleAlessandro Olper, Lucia Pacca, Daniele Curzi. Trade, import competition and productivity growth in the food industry. Food Policy. 2014; 49 ():71-83.
Chicago/Turabian StyleAlessandro Olper; Lucia Pacca; Daniele Curzi. 2014. "Trade, import competition and productivity growth in the food industry." Food Policy 49, no. : 71-83.
This paper analyses the extent to which the reduction of import tariffs as a measure of import competition affects the quality upgrading of the food products exported to the European Union (EU). This relationship is studied using a ‘distance to the frontier’ model which is based on a non-monotonic relationship between competition and innovation. Quality is inferred from trade data using an innovative method recently proposed by Khandelwal. The results strongly support the existence of a non-monotonic relationship between competition and quality upgrading, with varieties close to the world frontier being more likely to upgrade quality in response to an increase in import competition. This relationship holds true for both developing and developed countries and is even stronger for countries/products targeted by specific FDI policies. Moreover, there is a strong positive relationship between the diffusion of EU voluntary standard and quality upgrading.
Daniele Curzi; Valentina Raimondi; Alessandro Olper. Quality upgrading, competition and trade policy: evidence from the agri-food sector. European Review of Agricultural Economics 2014, 42, 239 -267.
AMA StyleDaniele Curzi, Valentina Raimondi, Alessandro Olper. Quality upgrading, competition and trade policy: evidence from the agri-food sector. European Review of Agricultural Economics. 2014; 42 (2):239-267.
Chicago/Turabian StyleDaniele Curzi; Valentina Raimondi; Alessandro Olper. 2014. "Quality upgrading, competition and trade policy: evidence from the agri-food sector." European Review of Agricultural Economics 42, no. 2: 239-267.
Alessandro Olper; Daniele Curzi; Lucia Pacca. Do food standards affect the quality of EU imports? Economics Letters 2014, 122, 233 -237.
AMA StyleAlessandro Olper, Daniele Curzi, Lucia Pacca. Do food standards affect the quality of EU imports? Economics Letters. 2014; 122 (2):233-237.
Chicago/Turabian StyleAlessandro Olper; Daniele Curzi; Lucia Pacca. 2014. "Do food standards affect the quality of EU imports?" Economics Letters 122, no. 2: 233-237.
This paper studies the effect of a political regime transition on food security and more specifically on child mortality. Using a new estimation approach, the Synthetic Control Method, we find that a political reform towards a democracy does not systematically reduce child mortality. Of the 33 country case studies, we find a significant and positive relation between food security and political reforms for 4 countries, while for the remaining 29 countries no impact was found. These results are in contrast with the results from the traditional difference-in-difference estimations (This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
Hannah Pieters; Daniele Curzi; Alessandro Olper; Jo Swinnen. Political reforms and food security. 2014, 1 .
AMA StyleHannah Pieters, Daniele Curzi, Alessandro Olper, Jo Swinnen. Political reforms and food security. . 2014; ():1.
Chicago/Turabian StyleHannah Pieters; Daniele Curzi; Alessandro Olper; Jo Swinnen. 2014. "Political reforms and food security." , no. : 1.