Applied Micro Seminar : Every Tuesday
Time: 12:15 pm – 13:30 pm
Date: October, 6
Room : 3001

Bernd FITZENBERGER (IAB) “Competitiveness, Trade Composition, and the Diverging Export Performance of Germany and the U.S.” – (Joint work with Christian Dustmann, Jan Knuf, and Alexandra Spitz-Oener)

Abstract :

We examine why Germany and the United States experienced sharply diverging export performance during the globalization boom of the 2000s and why these patterns reversed after the global financial crisis. We develop a decomposition framework that separates export growth into trade composition effects and exporter-specific competitiveness and propose a method to measure product quality that allows for flexible substitution patterns and nonhomothetic preferences. Applying the framework to highly disaggregated trade data for 2000–2023, we show that divergent export performance during the 2000s was driven primarily by differences in quality-based competitiveness, while the subsequent reversal reflects both a deterioration of Germany’s quality advantage and shifts in sectoral and geographic demand patterns that curbed German export growth but benefited the United States. Our findings provide a unified explanation for the changing export performance of two major advanced economies and a framework for distinguishing competitiveness from compositional forces in export growth.

Organizers:
Benoît SCHMUTZ (Pôle économie du CREST)
Clément MALGOUYRES (Pôle économie du CREST)

Sponsors:
CREST