To Örebro University

Information frictions make foreign trade risky. In particular, the risk of buyer default deters firms from selling abroad. To address this issue, many countries offer export credit guarantees to provide insurance to exporters. In this paper, we investigate the causal effects of guarantees by exploiting a quasi-natural experiment in Sweden and rich register data on guarantees, firms and trade. Estimates from a fuzzy regression discontinuity design show large positive effects on the probability of exporting and the value of exports to the destination for which the guarantees are issued. These results are robust to an alternative approach using a difference-in-differences matching estimator. Further findings suggest that guarantees impact firms heterogeneously and play an important role in resolving buyer default risk and easing liquidity constraints. Larger impacts are observed in non-OECD countries, on smaller, liquidity constrained exporters and for firms selling products that face a relatively high cost of buyer default.

We examine if international trade improves labor market integration of immigrants in Sweden. Immigrants participate substantially less than natives in the labor market. However, trading with a foreign country is expected to increase the demand for immigrants from that country. By hiring immigrants, a firm may access foreign knowledge and networks needed to overcome information frictions in trade. Using granular longitudinal matched employer–employee data and an instrumental variable approach, we estimate the causal effects of a firm’s bilateral trade on employment and wages of immigrants from that country. We find a positive, yet heterogeneous, effect of trade on immigrant employment but no effect on immigrant wages.

We use survival analysis to analyse the impact of export credit guarantees on firms’ export duration using granular Swedish panel data at the firm-country and firm-country-product levels. The estimation results show that firms’ export survival substantially increases with guarantees, at both levels. The associations are particu- larly strong for smaller firms and contracts as well as in trade with riskier markets. The findings have implications for policies to promote long-run export growth.

Many countries offer government-backed export credit guarantees to domestic firms. We investigate the effects of such guarantees on firm exports, jobs and value added. Using uniquely detailed and exhaustive transaction-level panel data on guarantees and granular information on trade, exporters and foreign buyers, we perform difference-indifferences matching estimations. We find that guarantees improve firm performance. However, the effects are strikingly heterogeneous across firm size and response variables. Using guarantees increases the firm-destination probability of exporting and the value of exports by 18 and 172 percent, respectively, but does not generally increase jobs or value added. Smaller firms benefit the most in terms of exports. Overall, the evidence suggests a causal link from guarantees to firm export performance.

Många länder erbjuder exportkreditgarantier där staten mot en premie utfäster sig att betala exportören om den utländska kunden inte gör det. Vi beskriver det svenska systemet under Exportkreditnämnden, med fokus på små- och medel- stora företag, och undersöker effekterna av sådana garantier på företags export, sysselsättning och förädlingsvärde. Vi finner att garantierna påverkar såväl inträde i export som värdet på exporten positivt. Vi noterar att effekterna är mycket heterogena över olika typer av företag och utfallsvariabler, där de min- dre företagens export underlättas avsevärt mer än de stora företagens. För vissa företag och transaktioner ser vi även effekter på jobb och förädlingsvärde. Vi avslutar med att diskutera policyimplikationer.

This thesis consists of four independent essays that deal with the firm dynamics and competition in the electricity market. Specifically, it addresses two important facets of firm dynamics, namely, firm performance (growth and profitability) and the change in competition intensity that Swedish electricity firms face, brought by the process of deregulation in Swedish electricity market.

Essay 1 investigates whether Gibrat’s law holds for individual firms. The results support the claim that Gibrat’s law is more likely to be rejected ex ante when an entire firm population is considered, but more likely to be confirmed ex post after market selection has “cleaned” the original population of firms or when the analysis treats more disaggregated data.

Essay 2 examines the determinants of firm growth in the Swedish electricity sector. The results indicate that large firms do not grow faster than do other firms in the sector, and that electricity firms’ internal resources are indeed the key determinants of firm growth in the Swedish electricity industry.

Essay 3 shows that although multi-plant firms are more prevalent than single-plants firms in industries characterized by scale economies and imperfect competition, multi-plant electricity firms on average have a one percentage-point lower return on total asset than their single-plant counterparts as they reach a ‘steady state’ firm size when an optimal size is identified. The potential reasons could be loss of control across hierarchical levels within multi-plant firms or the adaption to technological changes lag behind in comparison to single–plant firms.

Essay 4 compare competition intensity before and after the launch of Internet electricity price comparison sites (IEPCS). The heterogeneous effects on competition intensity are found, with the largest effect on competition found in parts of the market that were already characterized by high levels of competition before the launch of IEPCS.

Information frictions make non-simultaneous exchange risky, particularly across borders. Therefore, many countries insure cross-border exchange. We investigate the effects on firm trade, jobs, value added and productivity, using uniquely detailed, comprehensive and longitudinal transaction-level Swedish data on insurance and granular data on exporters and foreign buyers. For identification, we employ matching and differencein-difference and fuzzy regression discontinuity estimators and exploit a quasi-natural experiment. We find strikingly heterogeneous effects across firm size and response variables. The strongest positive effects are for small traders and new users. Overall, the evidence suggests a causal link from export insurance to firm performance.