Dissertation
Essays in empirical international trade and innovation
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Drexel University
Jun 2020
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17918/00000247
Abstract
This thesis is divided in two parts: the first part investigates the role of firms in international trade and productivity growth; the second explores the changing geographical landscape of innovation and high-tech jobs in the U.S. In the first essay, I use confidential firm level data from the U.S. Census Bureau to study the causal impact of offshoring on R&D expenditures and quantify their joint impact on firm performance. I highlight two main contributions: First, by constructing a shift-share design instrument to identify exogenous variation in offshoring, I show that offshoring has a significant positive impact on domestic R&D expenditures. Second, I build and estimate a structural dynamic model of R&D investment, in which a decline in the relative cost of imported intermediates increases the firm's incentive to invest in R&D, thus endogenously leading to an increase in firm productivity. I then use the estimated model to quantify the effects of a (not so) counterfactual tariff on firm value and long-run returns to R&D. In response to a proposed 20% unilateral tariff on intermediate imports, firm value declines by 0.6% in the subsequent period, while average long-run gains from R&D decline significantly by 2.94 percentage points, owing to a decline in R&D participation by 7.1 percentage points. In light of the current political discourse on protectionist trade policies, this paper shows that identification of the offshoring driven R&D channel is fundamental to quantify the consequences of trade policies on firm performance. In the second essay, I provide external validation to the results highlighted
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Details
- Title
- Essays in empirical international trade and innovation
- Creators
- Ishan Deep Ghosh
- Contributors
- Andre Kurmann (Advisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Drexel University
- Degree Awarded
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Publisher
- Drexel University; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Number of pages
- ix, 163 pages
- Resource Type
- Dissertation
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Economics (School of Economics); Bennett S. LeBow College of Business; Drexel University
- Other Identifier
- 991014695138904721