Fiscal Shocks and International Production Networks: An Empirical Investigation

Recently, a large literature has been developed from the production network models, to be applied in a diversity of fields as financial contagion, trade comovements or the aggregation of micro shocks. Thus, one theoretical implication introduced by Acemoglu et al. (2015), argue that demand-side shocks (i.e. government spending) spread through the production networks following upstream propagation with greater intensity downstream. This paper empirically evaluates the international transmission of government purchase shocks through a production network. Using industry-level data about international input-output linkages, I extend the empirical approach in Acemoglu et al. (2015) to examine employment responses to government purchases. I find that fiscal shocks have a significant and positive impact on the employment, through the international production network.