Prof. Andrew B. Bernard

Sparse Production Networks

Andrew B. Bernard and Yuan Zi have demonstrated that firm-to-firm connections in domestic and international production networks play a fundamental role in economic outcomes. Firm heterogeneity and the sparse nature of firm-to-firm connections implicitly discipline network structure. The researchers determined that a large group of well-established statistical relationships are not useful in improving our understanding of production networks. Instead they have proposed an “elementary” model for a production network based on random matching and firm heterogeneity that is a useful benchmark in developing “instructive” statistics and informing model construction and selection.

Mr. Bernard is an expert in international trade and investment and specializes in firm responses to globalization. In recent papers, he has examined the origins of firm size heterogeneity in production networks and revisited traditional views of offshoring and the consequences for domestic manufacturers. His current research examines the effects of cross-border internet restrictions on the flow of knowledge and the effects of geography on service trade in domestic production networks.

Andrew B. Bernard is Kadas T’90 Distinguished Professor at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. In 2022 he was invited to give the Ohlin Lecture at the Stockholm School of Economics. Mr. Bernhard is the author of numerous papers on firms in international trade. He was named by Thompson Reuters as one of the Most Highly Cited Researchers every year from 2014-2020 and is among the most cited economists. Andrew Bernard received his PhD from Stanford in Economics in 1991 and was on the faculty at MIT and Yale prior to Tuck. He is a CESifo Research Network Fellow, a CEPR Research Fellow, as well as an NBER and CEP Research Associate.