Firms and Economic Performance: A View from Trade

Alessandra Bonfiglioli (alessandra.bonfiglioli@unibg.it), Rosario Crino (rosario.crino@unibg.it) and Gino Gancia

No 1047, Working Papers from Barcelona School of Economics

Abstract: We use transaction-level US import data to compare firms from virtually all countries in the world competing in a single destination market. Guided by a simple theoretical framework, we decompose countries' market shares into the contribution of the number of firm-products, their average attributes (quality and efficiency) and heterogeneity around the mean. To further explore the role of exceptional firms, we develop a novel decomposition that identifies the contribution of deviations from continuous distributions. We then study how the distribution of firm-level characteristics varies across countries. Our results shed new light on how firms shape aggregate economic performance.

Keywords: US imports; firm heterogeneity; international trade; prices; Quality; variety; granularity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F12 F14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec and nep-int
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Related works:
Journal Article: Firms and economic performance: A view from trade (2025)
Working Paper: Firms and Economic Performance: A View from Trade (2019)
Working Paper: Firms and economic performance: A view from trade (2019)
Working Paper: Firms and Economic Performance: A View from Trade (2018)
Working Paper: Firms and Economic Performance: A View from Trade (2018)
Working Paper: Firms and Economic Performance: A View from Trade (2018)
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