Research
Working Papers
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Platforms for Growth? Multinationals, Trade, and Technology Diffusion
Abstract
We study the role of export platforms—sectors that combine export-oriented production with a strong multinational firm presence—in shaping trade and growth. Empirically, we focus on Vietnam and exploit variation across sectors along two dimensions: first, in exposure to a reform that sharply lowered the cost of exporting to the United States; and second, in pre-reform openness to multinationals. We find that the interaction of export market access and multinational presence generated large increases in exports, sales, and employment. These differential effects were driven by both multinationals and domestically-owned firms, and domestic firms in exposed sectors report more links with multinationals, more technology transfer, and more technology modifications. Motivated by these results, we build a quantitative model that embeds multinational production and technology diffusion within a general equilibrium trade framework. We calibrate the model's key parameters by targeting our empirical results and quantify how becoming an export platform has contributed to Vietnam's growth.
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Place-based Policy, Migration Barriers, and Spatial Inequality
Abstract
What makes place-based incentives for firms succeed at reducing spatial inequality? The answer depends on where workers migrate and thus on how migration costs vary across destinations. I develop a dynamic spatial general equilibrium model with firm dynamics and endogenous public services. Vietnam's enterprise tax and household registration reforms provide variation in place-based incentives and migration costs. I exploit these variations to discipline key elasticities. I find that where migration costs fall matters more than how much they fall. When migration barriers fall toward secondary cities rather than metropolitan areas in Vietnam, the redistributive effect of place-based incentives increases fivefold.
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Better Jobs for Mothers, More Sons at Birth
Abstract
Vietnam's sex ratio at birth rose from 107 boys per 100 girls to 112 as trade liberalization expanded female employment, even though women's economic gains are usually expected to favor daughters. Standard accounts emphasize fertility decline, relative returns, and income gains, but do not distinguish maternal from paternal labor-market gains. We develop a model in which maternal wages, unlike paternal wages, raise the cost of children because mothers bear childcare time costs, lowering fertility, and a quantity-quality tradeoff can amplify this channel as fertility falls. Using industry-level tariff cuts from the 2001 US-Vietnam trade agreement, we assign exposure separately to each parent. Maternal exposure raises male birth probability and hours worked and lowers fertility. Paternal exposure raises fertility but does not affect sex selection. This joint pattern supports a maternal time-cost channel over income-only or relative-returns explanations.