Andrea Caragliu (p), Michiel Gerritse

Francisco J. Velazquez

With China’s 2001 WTO accession, trade costs between the US and China fell sharply, but the transport costs of Chinese imports within the US remained sizable. We argue that domestic transport costs shield local labor markets from globalization. Using a shift-share design for industry-level Chinese imports across 42 ports of entry, we show that US job losses from competing imports occurred near the ports where they arrived. Once accounting for domestic transport costs, import competition affects coastal areas more than inland areas; shows larger impacts in housing markets and indirectly affected jobs; and explains voting, mortality and family formation.

Daniele Crotti (p), Mina Akhavan, Elena Maggi, Barbara Bonvento, Vincenzo Rebba

Andrea Caragliu

Due to contagion risks and mobility restrictions, the COVID-19 pandemic has strongly impacted older adults’ outdoor movement, mainly by active modes of transport, including Local Public Transportation (LPT). This paper follows a twofold aim: (i) to investigate the factors influencing the pre-COVID usage of LPT to reach destinations such as healthcare facilities and places for gathering and social inclusion; (ii) to explore the potential frequency of LPT use variation in post-COVID times. For this empirical study, primary data has been collected (during the beginning of 2022) for three cities in the North of Italy, which were severely affected by the pandemic. Findings show a correlation between the use of LPT to reach the destinations mentioned above and an increasing frequency of transit usage after COVID-19. From a transport policy point of view, such a result implies a post-pandemic increasing “demand” for LPT services in later life. As a result, policymakers are called to consider this potential request and, more generally, to enhance the outdoor mobility of senior citizens aged 65 and over by forming or amending local policies to improve the LPT accessibility to more visited places by seniors for immediate and/or long-term medical care as well as for social participation.

Jacobo Núñez, David Martín-Barroso, Juan Andrés Núñez-Serrano, Francisco J. Velazquez (p)

Daniele Crotti

This paper analyses the determinants of firm’s export propensity in the Spanish protected wine industry. In order to do so, we propose an empirical model that introduces business heterogeneity, the location of firms through their corresponding appellations of origin, and some indicators to identify the strategies followed by the firms, specifically, the horizontal and vertical differentiation as well as innovation in the production processes. We build a three level database that contains information on the wines produced, the wineries and the firms that own the wineries, allowing the identification of the production and geographical differentiation strategies. Results show a statistically significant positive effect on exports of size, financial strength, differentiated production processes, the existence of a network, vertical differentiation of production, geographic diversification and price competitiveness. On the other hand, the age of the wineries, the horizontal diversification of products and the presence in high price segments, they all have a statistically significant negative effect on export propensity.