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This paper uses matched employer–employee data covering the universe of Swedish private sector firms 1998–2014 to examine the links between exchange rate risk and the skill composition of labor in firms. We use firm × export destination and firm × import origin data to calculate firm-level measures of real exchange rate risk and real effective exchange rates. Our main result is that firms facing higher exchange rate risk employ a higher share of skilled labor and that the effect is especially marked among trade intensive firms in manufacturing and in firms with fewer than 50 employees. This finding is consistent with theoretical models of flexible work systems that require higher skill levels as a way of responding to higher risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A number of researchers have found that imports by pollution heavy industries do not increase in response to tighter pollution policy. We empirically evaluate the impact of an sudden and unexpected increase in Swedish electricity prices in the 2000s on the imports of intermediate inputs by Swedish manufacturers. We find that imports declined as domestic electricity prices rose for firms with the most electricity-intense in-house production. We rationalize these findings by developing a simple model of trade in intermediate inputs, which illustrates that energy-intense firms may decrease imports if it is sufficiently difficult to substitute between domestic- and foreign-sourced inputs as domestic energy prices rise. The offshoring mechanism which we identify can help to reconcile conflicting empirical results in the carbon leakage and pollution haven literature, and also has implications for determining the extent to which energy intense trade-exposed sectors should be exempt from domestic climate change policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Market shares for organic products remain modest despite broad professed consumer interest in purchasing organic products. We use counterfactual product introductions in an estimated demand model to systematically explore the links between product assortment and the market share for organic products. The demand estimates on which we base the counterfactuals use 3 years of household panel data on retail coffee purchases in Sweden, combining household’s stated and revealed behavior in a discrete choice model. The predicted market shares of new organic products are highly dependent on which brand that the organic label partners with. Introduction of a new organic product is predicted to increase in-sample organic market share from around 5% up to a maximum of around 8%. The market expansion effect dominates the market stealing effect for almost all entrants. The largest market share gains for organic products are not to be had amongst the keenest organic households, but rather amongst the moderately keen organic households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]