Johannes Van Biesebroeck is a Professor of Economics at the KU Leuven (Belgium) and a research affiliate at the CEPR (UK). He obtained his Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University in 2001 and worked until 2008 at the University of Toronto. He specializes in the areas of industrial organization, international trade, and development economics. His work on the automotive industry includes studies on the adoption of flexible technology, the automotive value chain, interaction between innovation and market structure, strategic trade liberalization, and outsourcing to low-wage countries.
His work on international trade is increasingly focused on the Chinese economy and the impact of trade liberalization and quality upgrading by exporters. He has advised the Canadian and Flemish governments on trade and industrial policy issues and.
Selected publications:
- Wages Equal Productivity. Fact or Fiction?” World Development (2011)
- “Firm Size Matters: Growth and Productivity Growth in African Manufacturing,” Economic Development and Cultural Change (2005)
- “Proximity Strategies in Outsourcing Relations: The Role of Geographical, Cultural, and Relational Proximity in the European Automotive Industry” (w/ A. Schmitt), Journal of International Business Studies (2013)
- “Value Chains, Networks, and Clusters: Reframing the Global Automotive Industry” (w/ T. Sturgeon, G. Gereffi), Journal of Economic Geography (2008)
- “Outsourcing when Investments are Specific and Interrelated” (w/ A. Lileeva), Journal of the European Economic Association
