Essays on innovation and trade[Essais sur l’innovation et le commerce]

This thesis is divided into three chapters. Chapter 1 studies the effect of an increase in thediffusion of knowledge on the creation of new ideas. We start by showing that, during the onsetof the Jet Age, travel times between US cities dropped substantially. This led to an increase inknowledge diffusion, as measured by patent citations by inventors located in different cities.Constructing a novel measure of access to knowledge, we show that this also increased the filingof new patents, especially in initially laggard locations. In chapter 2, we look at cross-bordercollaboration of inventors inside multinational firms. Time zone differences appear to be a majorimpediment to these collaborations. A drop in communication cost due to the liberalisation of thetelecommunication sector increased collaboration, but only between establishments with a highoverlap in business hours. Chapter 3 looks at how uncertainty in trade costs affects exporters.First, I show that ethnic conflicts in Myanmar often make roads to neighbouring countries riskyto pass. This significantly reduces exports and leads firms to sell some of their produce on thedomestic market. Focusing on perishable and thus risky products, large and politically connectedfirms are more likely to keep trading during times of increased conflict.