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Tommaso Bighelli

Tommaso Bighelli
Current Position

since 10/19

Economist in the Department of Structural Change and Productivity

Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH) – Member of the Leibniz Association

Research Interests
  • firm productivity
  • international economics

Tommaso Bighelli joined the Department of Structural Change and Productivity as a doctoral student in October 2019. He is also a member of the CompNet research team. His research focuses on productivity, firms' heterogeneity, and international economics.

Tommaso Bighelli received his bachelor's and master's degree from Sapienza University in Rome as well as a master of research in economic analysis from the IDEA Graduate Programme at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.

Your contact

Tommaso Bighelli
Tommaso Bighelli
Mitglied - Department Structural Change and Productivity
Send Message +49 345 7753-879

Publications

Browse all refereed publications

Working Papers

cover_DP_2021-5.jpg

European Firm Concentration and Aggregate Productivity

Tommaso Bighelli Filippo di Mauro Marc Melitz Matthias Mertens

in: IWH Discussion Papers, No. 5, 2021

Abstract

This article derives a European Herfindahl-Hirschman concentration index from 15 micro-aggregated country datasets. In the last decade, European concentration rose due to a reallocation of economic activity towards large and concentrated industries. Over the same period, productivity gains from reallocation accounted for 50% of European productivity growth and markups stayed constant. Using country-industry variation, we show that changes in concentration are positively associated with changes in productivity and allocative efficiency. This holds across most sectors and countries and supports the notion that rising concentration in Europe reflects a more efficient market environment rather than weak competition and rising market power.

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