Micro-Based Evidence of EU Competitiveness: The CompNet Database

86 Pages Posted: 8 Mar 2014

See all articles by Paloma Lopez-Garcia

Paloma Lopez-Garcia

European Central Bank

Filippo di Mauro

European Central Bank (ECB)

Nicola Benatti

European Central Bank (ECB)

Chiara Angeloni

European Central Bank (ECB)

Carlo Altomonte

Bocconi University - Department of Policy Analysis and Public Management

Matteo Bugamelli

Bank of Italy

Leandro D'Aurizio

Bank of Italy

Giorgio Barba Navaretti

University of Milan - Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods (DEMM); University of Milan - Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano (LdA)

Emanuele Forlani

Catholic University of Louvain (UCL) - Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE)

Stefania Rossetti

National Institute of Statistics (Istat)

Davide Zurlo

National Institute of Statistics (Istat)

Antoine Berthou

Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne - Centre Maison des Sciences Economiques; Paris School of Economics (PSE)

Charlotte Sandoz-Dit-Bragard

Banque de France

Emmanuel Dhyne

National Bank of Belgium

João Amador

Bank of Portugal

Luca David Opromolla

Bank of Portugal; CEPR; UECE - Research Unit on Complexity in Economics

Ana Cristina Soares

Bank of Portugal

Bogdan Mihai Chiriacescu

National Bank of Romania

Ana-Maria Cazacu

National Bank of Romania

Tibor Lalinsky

National Bank of Slovakia

Elena Biewen

Institute for Applied Economic Research (IAW)

Sven Blank

Deutsche Bundesbank - Research Centre

Philipp Meinen

Deutsche Bundesbank

Jan Hagemejer

National Bank of Poland; University of Warsaw - Faculty of Economic Sciences

Patrocinio Tello

Banco de España

Antonio Rodríguez-Caloca

European Central Bank

Urška Čede

Bank of Slovenia

Kamil Galuscak

Czech National Bank

Jaanika Meriküll

Bank of Estonia; University of Tartu

Peter Harasztosi

Joint Research Centre, Italy

Date Written: January 27, 2014

Abstract

Drawing from confidential firm-level balance sheets in 11 European countries, the paper presents a novel sectoral database of comparable productivity indicators built by members of the Competitiveness Research Network (CompNet) using a newly developed research infrastructure. Beyond aggregate information available from industry statistics of Eurostat or EU KLEMS, the paper provides information on the distribution of firms across several dimensions related to competitiveness, e.g. productivity and size. The database comprises so far 11 countries, with information for 58 sectors over the period 1995-2011. The paper documents the development of the new research infrastructure, describes the database, and shows some preliminary results. Among them, it shows that there is large heterogeneity in terms of firm productivity or size within narrowly defined industries in all countries. Productivity, and above all, size distribution are very skewed across countries, with a thick left-tail of low productive firms. Moreover, firms at both ends of the distribution show very different dynamics in terms of productivity and unit labour costs. Within-sector heterogeneity and productivity dispersion are positively correlated to aggregate productivity given the possibility of reallocating resources from less to more productive firms. To this extent, we show how allocative efficiency varies across countries, and more interestingly, over different periods of time. Finally, we apply the new database to illustrate the importance of productivity dispersion to explain aggregate trade results.

Keywords: cross country analysis, firm-level data, competitiveness, productivity and size distribution, total factor productivity, allocative efficiency

JEL Classification: L11, L25, D24, O4, O57

Suggested Citation

Lopez-Garcia, Paloma and di Mauro, Filippo and Benatti, Nicola and Angeloni, Chiara and Altomonte, Carlo and Bugamelli, Matteo and D'Aurizio, Leandro and Barba Navaretti, Giorgio and Forlani, Emanuele and Rossetti, Stefania and Zurlo, Davide and Berthou, Antoine and Sandoz-Dit-Bragard, Charlotte and Dhyne, Emmanuel and Amador, João and Opromolla, Luca David and Soares, Ana Cristina and Chiriacescu, Bogdan Mihai and Cazacu, Ana-Maria and Lalinsky, Tibor and Biewen, Elena and Blank, Sven and Meinen, Philipp and Hagemejer, Jan and Tello, Patrocinio and Rodríguez-Caloca, Antonio and Čede, Urška and Galuscak, Kamil and Meriküll, Jaanika and Harasztosi, Peter, Micro-Based Evidence of EU Competitiveness: The CompNet Database (January 27, 2014). ECB Working Paper No. 1634, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2385922 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2385922

Paloma Lopez-Garcia (Contact Author)

European Central Bank ( email )

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Filippo Di Mauro

European Central Bank (ECB) ( email )

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Nicola Benatti

European Central Bank (ECB) ( email )

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Chiara Angeloni

European Central Bank (ECB) ( email )

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Carlo Altomonte

Bocconi University - Department of Policy Analysis and Public Management ( email )

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Matteo Bugamelli

Bank of Italy ( email )

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Leandro D'Aurizio

Bank of Italy ( email )

Via Nazionale 91
Rome, 00184
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Giorgio Barba Navaretti

University of Milan - Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods (DEMM) ( email )

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Milan, 20122
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University of Milan - Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano (LdA) ( email )

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Italy
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Emanuele Forlani

Catholic University of Louvain (UCL) - Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE) ( email )

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Belgium

Stefania Rossetti

National Institute of Statistics (Istat) ( email )

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Italy

Davide Zurlo

National Institute of Statistics (Istat) ( email )

Via Cesare Balbo 16
00184 Rome, 0185
Italy

Antoine Berthou

Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne - Centre Maison des Sciences Economiques ( email )

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Paris Cedex 13, 75647
France
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Paris School of Economics (PSE) ( email )

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France

Charlotte Sandoz-Dit-Bragard

Banque de France ( email )

Paris
France

Emmanuel Dhyne

National Bank of Belgium ( email )

Brussels, B-1000
Belgium

João Amador

Bank of Portugal ( email )

Rua Francisco Ribeiro, 2
Lisbon, 1150-165
Portugal

Luca David Opromolla

Bank of Portugal ( email )

Rua Francisco Ribeiro 2
Lisbon, 1150-165
Portugal

CEPR ( email )

London
United Kingdom

UECE - Research Unit on Complexity in Economics ( email )

ISEG/UTL Rua Miguel Lupi 20
Lisboa, 1249-078
Portugal

Ana Cristina Soares

Bank of Portugal ( email )

Rua Francisco Ribeiro, 2
Lisbon, 1150-165
Portugal

Bogdan Mihai Chiriacescu

National Bank of Romania ( email )

Bucharest
Romania

Ana-Maria Cazacu

National Bank of Romania ( email )

Bucharest
Romania

Tibor Lalinsky

National Bank of Slovakia ( email )

Imricha Karvasa 1
813 25 Bratislava
Slovakia

Elena Biewen

Institute for Applied Economic Research (IAW) ( email )

Ob dem Himmelreich 1
Tubingen, 72074
Germany

Sven Blank

Deutsche Bundesbank - Research Centre ( email )

Wilhelm-Epstein-Str. 14
D-60431 Frankfurt/Main
Germany

Philipp Meinen

Deutsche Bundesbank ( email )

Wilhelm-Epstein-Str. 14
Frankfurt/Main, 60431
Germany

Jan Hagemejer

National Bank of Poland ( email )

00-919 Warsaw
Poland

University of Warsaw - Faculty of Economic Sciences ( email )

Dluga Street 44/50
Warsaw, 00-241
Poland

Patrocinio Tello

Banco de España ( email )

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Madrid, Madrid 28014
Spain
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Antonio Rodríguez-Caloca

European Central Bank ( email )

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Frankfurt am Main, 60314
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Urška Čede

Bank of Slovenia ( email )

Slovenska cesta 35
Slovenija, 1505
Slovenia

Kamil Galuscak

Czech National Bank ( email )

Na Prikope 28
CZ-11503 Praha 1
Czech Republic

Jaanika Meriküll

Bank of Estonia ( email )

Estonia Building 13
15095 Tallinn
Estonia

University of Tartu ( email )

Ülikooli 18
Tartu 50090
Estonia

Peter Harasztosi

Joint Research Centre, Italy ( email )

Via E. Fermi 1
I-21020 Ispra (VA)
United States

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