Abstract-How well does the theory of the firm explain the choice between intrafirm and arm's-length trade? This paper uses firm-level import data from France to look into this question. We find support for three key predictions of property rights theories of the multinational firm. Intrafirm imports are more likely in capital-and skill-intensive firms, in highly productive firms, and from countries with well-functioning judicial institutions. We bridge previous aggregate findings with our investigation by decomposing intrafirm imports into an extensive and intensive margin and uncover interesting patterns in the data that require further theoretical investigation.

* We would like to thank the participants of the 2013 Concordi conference (in Sévilla, Spain), of the internal seminar at the Banque de France, of the AFSE conference held in Lyon in June 2014, and of the ECOMOD conference held in Bali in July 2014 for their useful comments and suggestions. All remaining errors are ours. We would also like to thank the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research for giving us access to confidential data and organizing regular meeting on research tax credit evaluation.

Abstract-How well does the theory of the firm explain the choice between intrafirm and arm's-length trade? This paper uses firm-level import data from France to look into this question. We find support for three key predictions of property rights theories of the multinational firm. Intrafirm imports are more likely in capital-and skill-intensive firms, in highly productive firms, and from countries with well-functioning judicial institutions. We bridge previous aggregate findings with our investigation by decomposing intrafirm imports into an extensive and intensive margin and uncover interesting patterns in the data that require further theoretical investigation.

Cet article étudie l'effet des contraintes de financement sur les changements dans le nombre de marchés sur lesquelles les firmes exportent. Un modèle est développé dans lequel un moindre accès aux financements externes, ou en manque de ressources internes, détériorent la capacité à financer les coûts d'exportation récurrents et réduisent la probabilité de maintient sur les marchés étrangers. De plus, les contraintes financières sont un obstacle à l'expansion des exportations parce qu'elles réduisent la capacité à payer les coûts d'accès à des nouveaux marchés ; de ce fait elles conduisent les firmes à éviter la perte de destinations d'exportation. Pour tester les prédictions de ce modèle, nous utilisons une base de données longitudinale combinant une information sur les destinations des exportations des firmes et des variables de contraintes financières au niveau individuel. Nous obtenons deux résultats. Premièrement, les contraintes de financement ont un impact négatif sur le nombre de nouvelles destinations d'exportations. Deuxièmement, les contraintes de financement sont associées à une probabilité plus élevée de sortie des marchés d'exportations ; ceci étant compatible avec des contraintes qui limiteraient principalement la capacité à payer les coûts d'exportation récurrents.

International audienceAdvertising and innovation are two engines for firms to escape competition and improve profits. We propose a model that encompasses both the static and dynamic interactions between R&D, advertising and competitive environment. It provides three main predictions. First, for a given competitive environment, quality leaders spend more in advertising in order to extract maximal rents; thus, lower costs of ads may favor R&D. Second, the inverted-U relation between competition and R&D still holds with the introduction of advertising. Third, more competition is associated with on average more advertising expenditures. Empirical evidence from a large panel of 59,000 French firms over 1990–2004 supports these three properties