The next RITM Economics Seminar will take place on Monday 26 March, in Gaudemet (Jean Monnet – 54 boulevard Desgranges – 92330 Sceaux).
At 11:30, Claire LELARGE (Banque de France; CEPR) will present « Firm Size and the Gains from Input Trade» (with J. Blaum, C. Lelarge, M. Peters).
Abstract:
We use French microdata to test an ubiquitous property of firm-based models of importing. When firm efficiency is factor neutral and input prices and qualities are common across firms, firm size should have no effect on expenditure shares on the different products and varieties sourced, holding the extensive margin constant. We show that this property is not supported by the data. Holding the sourcing strategy fixed, we find that larger firms (i) have lower import shares, (ii) concentrate their import spending on their top varieties and (iii) pay higher prices for their imported inputs. Our findings imply that input trade, through the intensive margin, is less beneficial for larger firms. Our results are consistent with a complementarity between firm productivity and input quality.
At 13:00, Anne-Laure SAMSON (Université Paris-Dauphine) will present “Inter-municipal cooperation and local taxation“.
Abstract:
This paper focuses on the case of inter-municipal cooperation in order to study how the creation of a new jurisdictional tier with transferred competencies and tax power a§ects local taxation. We use a di§erence-in-di§erences approach with an original, exhaustive panel of French municipalities over the 1994-2010 period. Our estimation results show that despite a reduction in municipal tax rates, inter-municipal cooperation led to an increase in cumulative tax rates and municipal tax disparities.