KCG Journal Articles

The employment effects of disability benefit reassessment

15th June 2026
KCG Secretary
Authors: Anikó Bíró, Cecília Hornok, Judit Krekó, Dániel Prinz, Ágota Scharle (Journal of Public Economics 2026, 259: 105652)

We study the consequences of a large-scale reassessment of the health and working capacity of disability insurance beneficiaries in Hungary. Leveraging birthday and health cutoffs in the reassessment, we estimate employment responses to the threat of disability benefit loss and the actual termination or reduction of benefits[...]

Special economic zone dynamics and firm performance: Evidence from an emerging economy

17th September 2025
KCG Secretary
Authors: Charles Godfred Ackah, Robert Darko Osei, Baah Aye Kusi (Management and Decision Economics 2025, 45(6): 3834–3851)

The empirical literature on Special economic zones (SEZs) has shown that SEZs have become critical policy tools for advancing economic and firm performance, especially in developing economies where financial capital, human capital, technology and technical know-how to drive these performances are in limited supply. While the importance and effects of SEZs cannot be overemphasised and are well documented, particularly in Asia, SEZs' operationalisation, structure and policy practice appear to vary, especially in Ghana and hence a need to examine SEZ effects on firm performance in Ghana.

Big Data Analytics and Exports—Evidence for Manufacturing Firms from 27 EU Countries

1st September 2025
KCG Secretary
Authors: Joachim Wagner (Open Economies Review 2025, 36: 825–834)

Divestments by foreign multinationals are an important phenomenon that is largely neglected in the literature. We use firm level panel data from China to estimate the impact of such divestments on the performance of domestic firms in the local economy. To the best of our knowledge, there is no empirical study that has looked at these effects[...]

Bring the boys back home: The impact of foreign divestments on local firms

27th June 2025
KCG Secretary
Authors: Holger Görg, Haiou Mao, Nigel Driffield (The World Economy, forthcoming)

Divestments by foreign multinationals are an important phenomenon that is largely neglected in the literature. We use firm level panel data from China to estimate the impact of such divestments on the performance of domestic firms in the local economy. To the best of our knowledge, there is no empirical study that has looked at these effects[...]

How consumer animosity drives anti-consumption: A multi-country examination of social animosity

29th January 2025
KCG Secretary
Authors: Tinka Krüger, Stefan Hoffmann, Ipek N. Nibat, Robert Mai, Olivier Trendel, Holger Görg, Wassili Lasarov (Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 2024, 81: 103990)

In times of uncertainty, the study of consumer animosity and how it affects anti-consumption behavior becomes more important for both academics and practitioners. This study focuses on the social nature of boycotts and contributes to the literature by analyzing the influence of normative components[...]

How Importers Hedge Demand Uncertainty Through Dual Sourcing and Safety Inventory

29th January 2025
KCG Secretary
Authors: Chris Muris, Horst Raff, Nicolas Schmitt and Frank Stähler (Canadian Journal of Economics, forthcoming)

We develop a dynamic model of inventory and trade to study how an importer may hedge demand uncertainty when importing involves an order lead time. We show that when the import cost is low, the importer optimally holds safety inventory, i.e., inventory of imported goods in excess of expected sales to deal with demand surges[...]

Digitalization Intensity and Extensive Margins of Exports in Manufacturing Firms from 27 EU Countries – Evidence from Kernel-Regularized Least Squares Regression

8th January 2025
KCG Secretary
Authors: Joachim Wagner (Economic Analysis Letters, 2024, 4(1): 22–29)

The use of digital technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics, or smart devices can be expected to go hand in hand with higher productivity and lower trade costs, and, therefore, to be positively related to export activities[...]

Cloud computing and extensive margins of exports: Evidence for manufacturing firms from 27 EU countries

8th May 2024
KCG Secretary
Authors: Joachim Wagner (Journal of Information Economics 2024 2(1): 102–111)

The use of cloud computing by firms can be expected to go hand in hand with higher productivity, more innovations, and lower costs, and, therefore, should be positively related to export activities. Empirical evidence on the link between cloud computing and exports, however, is missing[...]