International agri-food trade: country level stability and firms' labor market interactions

International trade of agri-food products is essential for global food security. However, the trade network has faced numerous challenges at different scales — global, regional, and firm-level. These include recent shocks that have tested the resilience of the trade system, as well as various policy interventions. With a particular focus on trade stability, this thesis comprises four studies that investigate determinants of trade patterns in the agri-food sector. They contribute to the understanding of challenges and benefits for agri-food trade associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, institutional quality, food safety standards, and firms' labor market power. <br> The first study reveals that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the agri-food trade system has experienced short-term disruptions when pandemic-related restrictions were at their peak. Correlation analyses show that changes in countries' trade values and diversification are associated with policy stringency, people's mobility, and industrial production output. <br> The second and third study shed light on the impact of countries' institutional quality and standard stringency on agri-food trade stability. Analyzing exports from Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) to the EU-28 countries, the second study shows that higher levels of exporters' institutional quality and similarity of institutional quality between trading partners facilitate longer trade durations. When distinguishing between different dimensions of institutional quality, the strongest effect arises from exporters' government selection, monitoring, and replacement in SSA. Regarding bilateral similarity, respect for institutions by citizens and state is the most relevant dimension. In the third study, a theory- and literature-based framework shows that stringency and bilateral differences in food safety standards have ambiguous implications for trade stability. The global empirical analysis of agri-food trade reveals that higher importers' stringency in Maximum Residue Levels, an important agri-food standard, and bilateral similarities therein lead to longer and less volatile agri-food trade relations. <br> Focusing on the food processing sector, the last study analyses the relation of firms' export activities and their labor market power. Employing French firm-level data, the study finds that export participation and higher export intensity are associated with lower labor market power of firms. Reciprocally, higher labor market power of firms decreases export intensities but does not affect export participation. Investigating the relevance of markdown components demonstrates that wage and productivity components matter for both directions of the relationship between labor market power and export activities.