Book

Description

The papers in this book deal with aspects of firm dynamics in turbulent times – the COVID-19 crisis and an age of rapid technological changes. All studies are based on micro-data and the application of micro-econometric methods of analysis. Three papers (in chapters 1 – 3) look at the role of various firm characteristics for the dynamics of firms in the COVID-19 pandemic at the beginning of the 2020s. Here firm level data from the World Bank Enterprise surveys conducted in 2019 and from the follow-up surveys conducted in 2020 in European countries are used to investigate the role of firm size, firm age, product and process innovations, exports, and selling products over the web for firm exit and survival. For the first time the marginal effects of firm characteristics are computed here by a new machine-learning estimator, Kernel-Regularized Least Squares (KRLS), which makes no restrictive assumptions regarding the functional form of the empirical model used. Five papers (in chapters 4 – 8) look at various aspects of exports and its links with firm characteristics. All papers use the novel KRLS estimator and reveal new insights on exports and firm dynamics. Three of these papers have a focus on the role of the use of new digital technologies (like artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and robots); these papers are based on firm level data from the Flash Eurobarometer 486 conducted in 2020. The chapters include information on how to access the data and the code used in the papers for replications and extensions.