Pol Antras

I am very much looking forward to this event in Stockholm in October.

If you are a local, and want to attend, you can find more information here: www.kommerskollegium.se/en/analyses-...

Thank YOU for the invitation. It was great fun to visit Cologne after so many years, and to attend the first day of #VfS_Conf2025

In case you are interested, here are the slides of my talk: t.co/NKxEXeda4N

"Trump está convencido de que el libre comercio no es la manera óptima de manejar la globalización", nuevo #CIDOBinconversation con @pantras.bsky.social, profesor de economía en Harvard, sobre la agenda económica internacional y el impacto de las políticas de Trump
▶️ bit.ly/CIDOBinconve...

Innoscape | Pol Antràs | Innoscape Talk #11

I visited the University of Basel last December and sat down with Rolf Weder to discuss several aspects of my research and of global trade. A lot has changed in the last 4 months, but some of what I say may still be of relevance😅

Link to the interview: innoscape.ch/de/publikati...

Sounds like a fantastic event!

Alejandro Cuñat, Harald Fadinger, Kalina Manova and I are organizing the 8th Workshop on International Economic Networks (WIEN) to take place in beautiful Vienna on June 26-7, 2024. Send us a paper for consideration! We're particularly keen on receiving submissions from young scholars.

10/ Want to dig deeper?

Full paper: antras.scholars.harvard.edu/sites/g/file...

Short version for AEA P&P: antras.scholars.harvard.edu/sites/g/file...

Our six-digit NAICS measure of the APP can be downloaded here: antras.scholars.harvard.edu/sites/g/file...

Replication package available soon.

9/ Key takeaway: Production length is an important but overlooked aspect of production and firm behavior. We hope that our measure will find broader applications across fields.

8/ The negative relationship between APPs and capital costs holds across countries and industries. Even in sector-specific regressions, most industries show a similar pattern.

7/ Extending the analysis worldwide: APP rankings are highly correlated across countries. Some industries naturally require long production periods, regardless of where they are carried out.

6/ Industry correlations: Higher APP industries tend to be more skill-intensive but less physical capital-intensive. This suggests an interesting dichotomy between working capital intensity and physical capital intensity.

5/ Since 2006, APP in U.S. manufacturing has risen as the cost of capital has fallen. Our regression results suggest that about 19% of this increase is due to cheaper borrowing costs.

4/ Across industries and countries, APP is remarkably stable. Industries with complex production processes (e.g., pharmaceuticals, distilleries) have longer APPs, while perishable and commodity producers have shorter APPs.

3/ Using firm-level data from various countries, we confirm a key theoretical prediction: firms facing a higher capital costs feature shorter production periods. As interest rates rise, firms shorten their production lengths.

2/ APP is defined as a weighted average distance between the time a firm employs its inputs and the time these inputs deliver finished goods. In steady state, APP turns out to simplify to the ratio of inventories to the cost of goods sold (COGS). A simple yet informative metric!

1/ 📢 New paper alert! 📄 Together with Vitalii Tubdenov, we propose a measure of the "Average Period of Production" (APP) to capture the temporal dimension of production processes. It is inspired by Böhm-Bawerk’s capital theory.

What would be the impact of Trump's announced 25% tariff on all steel and aluminium imports? Lydia Cox's (coxlydia.com) job-market paper, now an R&R at the American Economic Review, provides good guidance. Latest version is here (coxlydia.com/papers/cox_s...).

Very grateful to the @jeeanews.bsky.social for the super quick turnaround, and to the editor and referees for their constructive comments! @romainwacziarg.bsky.social @Referee_1 @Referee_2 @Referee_3

Gràcies, Laia!

Pol Antràs, catedràtic d'Economia a Harvard: "Aquí els estudiants no tenen problema de preguntar; a Catalunya et diuen pilota" Fa 25 anys, Pol Antràs va marxar cap als Estats Units i des de llavors viu allà, concretament a la ciutat de Boston. Investigador i professor d'economia,

Gran entrevista al Catedràtic d'Economia @pantras.bsky.social al Via Lliure de Rac1: www.rac1.cat/internaciona...

The great
Daniel Ramos-Menchelli will present a preliminary version of our new joint paper with Edu Morales on "Trade and Welfare under Oligopolistic Competition." We hope to post a draft soon, but here is a link to our slides: t.co/XcFgV3KszJ

And here's the abstract:

If you are still around San Francisco for the #ASSA2025 meeting, please come check out this session on oligopoly and international trade.

I will be presenting a new paper with Vitalii Tubdenov on "Measuring the Average Period of Production." We will post a draft very soon, but here are our slides: scholar.harvard.edu/sites/schola...

I'm in San Francisco for the #ASSA2025 meetings. If you around and up early, come check out this session on inventories and international trade.

Outlining several unexplored areas in international trade, from Pol Antràs https://www.nber.org/papers/w33312

⬇️ recording of @pantras.bsky.social's @jeeanews.bsky.social - FBBVA lecture now here:
www.youtube.com/watch?si=DHX...
bsky.app/profile/eean...

Thanks, Doug!

Gracias, Juan. Un gusto verte ayer.

I've now turned the BBVA-EEA Lecture I gave in San Antonio in January and in Madrid this week into a working paper: scholar.harvard.edu/sites/schola...

The paper will come out in the Journal of the European Econ. Assoc. some time next year, but it's not a final version yet. Comments most welcome!

Super excited about this lecture in Madrid in December!