Deglobalisation, decarbonisation and digitalisation: How the three Ds affect firm pricing, markups and productivity

Banner colloquium 2024

In recent years, the global economy has been affected by a number of supply-side forces. One such force is structural developments. These include, to name but a few, the intensification of digitalisation, automation and robotisation; the acceleration of decarbonisation; and ongoing deglobalisation/regionalisation, driven by the search for greater supply chain resilience as well as heightened geopolitical tensions and resurgent protectionism.

All of these developments are expected to impact the behaviour of firms, shape their productivity and affect their market power or price-setting activity. Moreover, firm responses in these areas may be extremely heterogeneous. This heterogeneity should be well documented, understood and, subsequently, integrated into macroeconomic models in order to support the design of relevant, targeted policies.

Welcome and introduction
Pierre Wunsch, Governor of the National Bank of Belgium

Session 1: Climate

Chair:  Raf Wouters (National Bank of Belgium)


Keynote presentation: Challenges in the energy transition
Mar Reguant (Northwestern University and CSIC-IAE)

Will labour shortages and skills mismatches throw sand in the gears of the green transition in Belgium?
Mikkel Barslund (KU Leuven - HIVA)
Wouter Gelade and Geoffrey Minne (National Bank of Belgium)

Aggregate and distributional effects of a carbon tax
Christian Pröbsting (KU Leuven)

Emission trading and overlapping environmental support: installation-level evidence from the EU ETS
Klaas Mulier, Marten Ovaere, Leo Stimpfle (Universiteit Gent)

 

Session 2: Digitalisation

Chair: Catherine Fuss (National Bank of Belgium)

Digitalisation and international competitiveness: a cross-country exploration of the relation between firm-level ICT use, productivity and export
Kevin Randy Chemo Dzukou (INRAE), Javier Miranda (Halle Institute for Economic Research and Friedrich-Schiller University Jena), Pierre Mohnen (Maastricht University), Michael Polder (Statistics Netherlands), Mark Vancauteren (Hasselt University and Statistics Netherlands)

Digitalisation of firms and (type of) employment
Sousso Bignandi (Université de Liège)
Cédric Duprez and Céline Piton (National Bank of Belgium)

Keynote presentation: The past, present and future of European productivity
Antonin Bergeaud (HEC Paris, CEP-LSE and CEPR)

Session 3: Deglobalisation 

Chair:  Xavier Debrun (National Bank of Belgium)

Keynote presentation: New perspectives on global value chains
Pol Antràs (Harvard University)

Deglobalisation and the reorganisation of supply chains: effects on regional inequalities in the EU
Glenn Magerman (Université libre de Bruxelles) and Alberto Palazzolo (National Bank of Belgium and Université libre de Bruxelles)

Home country effects of multinational network restructuring in times of deglobalization: evidence from European MNEs
Bruno Merlevede (Universiteit Gent), Bernhard Michel (Federal Planning Bureau)

Session 4: Climate

Chair: Emmanuel Dhyne (National Bank of Belgium)


A bridge over troubled water: flooding shocks and supply chains
Gert Bijnens (National Bank of Belgium)
Mariano Montoya, Stijn Vanormelingen (KU Leuven)

The effects of carbon pricing along the production network
Ralf Martin (IFC- World Bank Group and Imperial College London)
Mirabelle Muûls (Imperial College London and National Bank of Belgium)
Thomas Stoerk (LSE and National Bank of Belgium)

The impact of climate transition policies on Belgian firms – what can we learn from a survey?
Gert Peersman (Universiteit Gent)
Raisa Basselier, Nabil Bouamara, Geert Langenus and Peter Reusens (National Bank of Belgium)

Belgium’s transition and transition potential to a green economy
Estelle Cantillon and Mattia Nardotto (Université libre de Bruxelles)

Related links and documents

Programmepdf