Results

CEP discussion paper

Protectionism and platform revenues

The Arab Spring made evident the dangers of democratization of information for incumbent governments, prompting regulatory changes that helped digital platforms gain power. We document a set of political favors (tariff s...Read more...

Blog

Unibo Magazine :

Declining forests and rising greenhouse gases: the impact of multinationals in Africa

The expansion of multinationals in Africa is making a significant contribution to the loss of forest cover, the reduction of crop diversity and, in part, the rise in greenhouse gas emissions. These are the findings of a ...Read more...

Journal article

Nature Climate Change:

The environmental impact of multinational firms in Africa

Whereas environmental conditions are improving in many developed countries, environmental degradation is still widespread. Multinational enterprises could play a central role in solving or fuelling these global environme...Read more...

Journal article

Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization:

Business groups as knowledge-based hierarchies of firms

We provide the first worldwide overview of the patterns of hierarchical differentiation across Business Groups (BGs), highlighting the coexistence of different hierarchical shapes. We show how the different shapes can ar...Read more...

Journal article

Journal of International Economics:

Liquidity as competitive advantage: the role of intangibles

We show that short-term liquidity can be a source of competitive advantage by enabling firms to invest in intangible assets. Our analysis leverages a French reform that capped payment delays in trade credit contracts, wh...Read more...

CentrePiece article

Peace and the pope

How do public speeches by global leaders affect conflict?...Read more...

Blog

Vox Dev:

When progress divides: Are multinational enterprises fuelling conflict in Africa?

New evidence using geo-referenced data across the African continent suggests that the arrival of multinational enterprises can fuel local conflicts....Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Dear brothers and sisters: Pope's speeches and the dynamics of conflict in Africa

Public speeches by leaders can serve as a cost-effective tool for fostering peace, yet their effectiveness remains uncertain, particularly in divided societies experiencing violent conflict. This paper examines the impac...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Large-scale land acquisitions: Trees, trade and structural change

Large-scale land acquisitions are a key component of agricultural foreign direct investment. In 2023 alone, nearly 6% of the world's arable land was acquired globally. This paper examines their impact on agricultural pro...Read more...

Journal article

The Economic Journal:

Globalization and conflicts: the good, the bad, and the ugly of corporations in Africa

Using a novel georeferenced datataset on the affiliates and headquarters of multinational enterprises between 2007 and 2018 together with georeferenced conflict data for the African continent, this work establishes a cau...Read more...

Journal article

Review of World Economics:

Curse or blessing? multinational corporations and labor market outcomes in Africa

Do multinational enterprises create local job opportunities in developing countries? We address this question in the context of Sub-Saharan Africa by combining information on domestic and foreign multinationals? affiliat...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Business groups, strategic acquisitions and innovation

We build a novel worldwide database merging information on patent-citations of firms paired with information on firms' affiliation to Business Groups (BGs). We exploit these data to document how BGs appropriate knowledge...Read more...

Journal article

Economica:

Economic insecurity and the demand for populism in Europe

We document the spiral of populism in Europe and the direct and indirect role of economic insecurity shocks. Using survey data on individual voting, we make two contributions to the literature. (i) Economic insecurity sh...Read more...

Blog

Vox EU:

Financial crises as drivers of populism: a new channel

Financial crises have severe economic costs. This column shows that they also entail major political costs. It argues that the global financial crisis, and associated Great Recession, represents a watershed for populism ...Read more...

Blog

Africa at LSE:

How multinationals exploited a health crisis to accelerate deforestation in Liberia

The way multinational enterprises conduct themselves during periods of crisis, such as an epidemic, is of key importance in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. A health crisis may alter the short-run incentives of some multi...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Epidemics and rapacity of multinational companies

Do multinationals engage in rent-seeking behaviour in developing countries during crises? With a difference in discontinuity approach, we use the Ebola epidemic in Liberia as a natural experiment on the sharp increase in...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Business groups as knowledge-based hierarchies of firms

Hierarchical differentiation is a cornerstone of the organizing process. In this paper, we do three things. First, exploiting a newly assembled dataset, we provide the first worldwide overview of the patterns of hierarch...Read more...

Journal article

Environmental Research Letters:

Saving the world from your couch: the heterogeneous medium-run benefits of Covid-19 lockdowns on air pollution

In Spring 2020, COVID-19 led to an unprecedented halt in public and economic life across the globe. In an otherwise tragic time, this provides a unique natural experiment to investigate the environmental impact of such a...Read more...

Blog

VoxEU:

Pollution reductions during lockdowns can teach us how to build back better a sustainable economy

Though Covid-19 lockdowns prompted a 35-45% reduction in pollution, effects across the world were unequal and policies aimed at combatting climate change must account for such diverse outcomes. This research highlights h...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Markups, intangible capital and heterogeneous financial frictions

This paper studies the interaction between financial frictions, intangible investment decisions, and markups at the firm level. In our model, heterogeneous credit constraints distort firms' decisions to invest in cost-re...Read more...

CEP discussion paper

Globalization and conflicts: the good, the bad and the ugly of corporations in Africa

Using georeferenced data on the affiliates and headquarters of multinational enterprises together with georeferenced conflict data, this work is the first to establish a causal link between the activities of multinationa...Read more...

Journal article

Economic Policy:

Global crises and populism: the role of Eurozone institutions

Populist parties are likely to gain consensus when mainstream parties and status quo institutions fail to manage the shocks faced by their economies. Institutional constraints, which limit the possible actions in the fac...Read more...

Journal article

Journal of Economic Literature:

On economic interdependence and war

In this article, we review the book Economic Interdependence and War by Dale C. Copeland, and take this opportunity to describe and discuss the current debate on the topic from an interdisciplinary perspective. We also p...Read more...