Yoann Morin (p), Lionel Védrine

Laszlo Szerb

Previous literature on training and agglomeration economies have interpreted the negative effect of employment density on the access to training as an evidence of poaching effects prevailing over pooling effects. However, the consensus on previous studies of the empirics of agglomeration economies is to consider employment density as a proxy for all agglomeration economies. If we decompose them in sharing, matching and learning, then pooling is only a part of sharing economies. As such, previous studies have neglected a huge part of agglomeration economies when interpreting its effects on training. Because identifying each type of agglomeration effect is still a complicated work to undertake, we instead propose a methodology to identify poaching effects. If the coefficient associated with employment density is still negative when controlling for poaching, then the negative effect of agglomeration on training need to be interpreted differently than is has been done in previous works. In the case of training, poaching effects occurs when employees who were trained by their employer are poached by other firms because they can offer higher wages by not having to pay for the training. Thus, our identification strategy is based on the construction of an indicator of the turn-over in each firm. To study this, we use data on french firms : our data contains informations about individual characteristics of firms, but also about each of their employees. Using the informations about their employees, we construct our indicator of the turn-over. Our preliminary results show that when we control for the turn-over, the effect of employment density is still negative and significant, so we suggest a new interpretation of the effects of agglomeration on training.

Zsolt Csáfordi (p), Károly Miklós Kiss, László Lőrincz, Balázs Lengyel

Laszlo Szerb

How does technological relatedness influence the portfolio of multi-product firms hit by external shocks? To answer this question, we look at the effect of product-specific demand shocks on product portfolios of firms in Hungary in the 2005-2012 period. We use the technological relatedness measure calculated from product co-occurrences in firms, following the revealed relatedness methodology. We find that production have become more cohesive in terms of technological relatedness if firms were exposed to demand shocks, whether these shocks affected their main or additional products. Evidence from firm-product level OLS panel regressions with firm fixed effects suggests that portfolio adjustment takes place both on the extensive and intensive margin: firms exposed to demand shocks are more likely to drop or downsize additional products not related to their main product and concentrate resources on related products. The results also stay robust in a more rigorous firm-main product fixed-effects framework.

Enrico Vanino (p), Alexander Jaax

Laszlo Szerb

Recent studies have analysed how industrial and economic diversification are associated with countries’ economic growth and resilience. This paper analyses the role of multinational enterprises (MNEs) in promoting the economic diversification of Mexican municipalities thorough the introduction of new industries. We explore whether economic diversification is purely limited to the activities conducted by MNEs or if it also encompasses changes in the activities of domestic firms. Our results indicate that the entry of pioneering FDIs positively affects the probability of subsequent entry by domestic firms. Finally, we look at the effect of spillovers across related industries and neighbouring municipalities.