This paper highlights the role of supply chain linkages for the transmission of COVID-19-induced shocks based on the monthly trade of the European Union Member States during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using the framework of the gravity model, we find an overall decline of over 20% in trade among EU countries following the COVID-19 outbreak. Both supply and demand shocks are shown to contribute to this trade decline associated with COVID-19 in the origin and destination country proxied by either infection rate or policy stringency index. While import demand

Based on the population of Slovenian firms we analyse the impact of the 2008 financial crisis on the firms' financial constraints. In line with the theoretical predictions firm size, ownership, productivity, and export orientation all impact firm's financial situation. With the full onset of the crisis in 2009, financial health of the foreign firms worsened more compared to domestic firms, while the availability of financial resources deteriorated less for more productive firms and for exporters. Even though firm's size has a significant impact on firm's financial constraint, crisis didn't have an additional significant negative effect on firms' financial distress for all but small firms. ARTICLE INFO

This paper introduces the concept of intangible assets in sequential supply chains and the importance of their appropriability in the organizational decision of firms. We focus on the quality of intellectual property rights (IPR) institutions, which on top of the hold-up problem between a supplier and the final producer entails an additional risk of imitation as technology may leak to competing producers in the market. The level of IPR enforcement in the location of a supplier can therefore play a crucial role in determining the decision of a final good producer whether to outsource or integrate a particular stage of production. The analysis is performed with Antràs and Chor (2013) in the background, where the position of the input along the supply chain, i.e. its upstreamness, and the degree of sequential complementarity of stagespecific inputs influence the organizational strategy of firms through the incentive structure of supplier investments. Our findings show that introducing intangible assets in sequential supply chain may have the opposite effect of contractibility on outsourcing decision, where only tangible property rights are considered. We argue therefore that the risk of imitation is a relevant feature that needs to be accounted for in the incomplete contract literature. Our theoretical predictions are validated on Slovenian firm-level data.J.E.L. Classification: F12, F14, F21, F23, D23, L22, L23, L24, O34.

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