Indirect exporters and importers

This paper analyses the relation between firms’ productivity and the different modes of participation in international trade. In particular, it accounts for the possibility that firms can not only export their products, but also internationally source their inputs, either directly or indirectly. Using a cross section of firm level data for several advanced and developing economies, the study confirms the productivity-sorting prediction according to which domestic firms are less efficient than those that resort to an export intermediary, while the latter are less productive than producers which export directly. We show that the same sorting exists on the import side. By considering firms involved in both exporting and importing activities, we also find that direct two-way traders are on average more productive than firms trading indirectly on one of the two trade sides. The latter are in turn more efficient than indirect two-way traders. Finally, we investigate the effects of source-country characteristics on the sorting of firms into different modes of international trade.     

Trading firms in the services sectors: comparable evidence from four EU countries

We establish a set of stylised facts for trade and trading firms in five market services sectors using comparable firm- and activity-level data from four EU countries. Our analysis shows that exports account for much lower shares of overall sales in the services sectors than in manufacturing. This is because fewer firms are engaged in trade in the services sectors and also because within particular sectors firms trade a lower share of their sales on average. Services producers trade mostly goods, but in terms of value, trade in services is much more important to them than to manufacturers. Larger and more productive firms are more likely to be two-way traders and to engage in both goods and services trade. Trade by services firms is somewhat less dominated by firms that both export and import than trade by manufacturing firms. Few firms export many services or to many countries. The value of services exports is increasing in the number of markets served but not necessarily in the number of services traded.     

Assessing Productivity Gains from International Trade in a Small Open Economy

Empirical evidence suggests that exporter firms tend to charge higher markups than non-exporters due to trade barriers. The exporters’ markup premium, however, may disappear in a special case, namely when the home country is small relative to its trade partners and trade barriers are low. This can be because competition is more intense in the large export destination than in the small home country, so that firms are able to set higher markups for locally sold products but not for exports. This paper provides empirical evidence on the validity of this special case by estimating markups for firms in Luxembourg who generally export to larger countries. The estimated negative markup premium for exporters has important implications for the productivity measurement. In a sufficiently small open economy, exporters’ productivity may be biased downward, when the firm-level markup variation is not controlled for in the productivity estimation. The bias in the productivity estimates further leads to the inaccurate conclusion that openness to international trade lowers allocative efficiency.     

出口固定成本、融资约束与中国企业出口参与

本文基于新新贸易理论和中国企业面临融资约束的现实,建立离散动态出口模型,发现克服出口固定成本和缓解融资约束可以促进企业出口参与。进而运用2004～2008年中国七十余万家制造业企业数据,从内源融资、银行信贷和商业信贷3个维度衡量融资约束,实证检验理论分析。结果发现,克服出口固定成本是企业参与出口的关键,商业信贷对企业出口参与贡献最大,银行信贷次之,内源融资贡献最小。细化样本后发现,克服出口固定成本仍然是出口的关键,但是,无内源融资企业较之有内源融资企业,内资企业较之外资企业,出口融资都更多依赖商业信贷和银行信贷;国有企业出口融资更多依赖银行信贷,而民营企业更多依赖商业信贷。变化融资约束衡量方法后,结果依然稳健。     

Competition,asset build up and export incentives: The role of imperfect credit market

This paper studies the export incentive of credit rationed, competitive and homogenous firms through asset build up highlighting the generic trade-off between competition and asset value in an imperfect credit market where poor and rich firms have different levels of assets. It is a contribution to the issues related to finance and trade in developing countries as raised first in Jones and Marjit (2001, AER). Our theoretical and empirical results indicate that although firms in more competitive industries are likely to be exporters, history of greater local competition before the entry of firms into export market i.e. under autarky, hurts export incentive by limiting cash flows and asset build up. In our set up more intense local competition hence lower price is an advantage to access global markets, but associated low profits and hence lower assets acts a detriment.     

Trade policy uncertainty,development strategy,and export behavior: Evidence from listed industrial companies in China

On the basis of new structural economics theory and heterogeneity of firm viability, this study analyzes the effect of trade policy uncertainty on firm export behavior using panel data of Chinese listed companies in the industrial sector. Empirical results show that the high uncertainty of trade policy significantly inhibits the extensive and intensive margins of firm export, while heterogeneity effect occurs across firms with different levels of viability. The development strategy that violates comparative advantage strengthens the negative impact of trade policy uncertainty on firm export. Despite their correlation with viability, the type of ownership, total factor productivity, and long-term loan are not suitable proxies for firm viability. Under high uncertainty of trade policy, export market diversification can alleviate the restraining effect of development strategy on firm export, whereas firms in regions with high industrial-oriented development tend to be vulnerable to cost shocks, thus reducing export market diversification. Findings present important implications for emerging market countries to enact better international trade and economic policies.     

地区营商环境对企业出口贸易的影响

文章利用世界银行于2013年公布的中国制造业企业问卷调查数据,实证检验地区营商环境对企业出口贸易的影响。研究发现,营商环境体系中的关贸监管效率、行政审批效率、基础设施条件、融资便利程度、高素质劳动力等因素显著阻碍了企业出口强度的提升,这几个方面应当成为政府部门改善营商环境的政策着力点。不同类型企业对营商环境的诉求存在显著差异,大型企业的出口贸易对营商环境各项指标的质量都更加敏感,高生产率企业的出口贸易则更易受到低质量税制环境和高素质劳动力短缺的制约。东部发达地区的企业出口贸易受要素市场条件的约束相对更多,而中西部欠发达地区的企业出口贸易受贸易便利条件的约束更为突出。     

政府挤占了企业人力资源吗——来自中国企业出口产品质量的证据

文章在异质性模型基础上，引入出口产品质量，通过构建理论模型考察了政府与企业间人才配置对企业出口质量决策的影响。人力资本在政府与企业间的配置是决定企业出口质量的重要因素，政府对人才的过度占用将导致其对高技能劳动的"竞争效应"高于生产率"溢出效应"，从而抑制企业的出口质量的提升。基于此，文章采用2005年全国1%人口抽样调查数据、中国工业企业数据、中国海关数据及其匹配数据，通过构建计量模型检验了政府与企业间人才配置对中国企业出口产品质量的影响。研究发现：虽然公务员人力资本水平的提高有助于政府公共物品提供，但是却挤占了企业生产中对高技能劳动力的使用，政府、企业间人才配置所带来的高技能劳动力"竞争效应"显著高于公共物品"溢出效应"，从而通过提升高技能劳动力的工资水平，抑制了中国企业出口产品质量的提升，这一结论在考虑了变量的度量、模型形式设定与内生性问题之后仍然稳健；进一步检验发现政府部门对企业人力资本的"竞争效应"在不同行业间存在显著地差异性，对与政府人力资本结构更为相似行业的出口质量压抑效应更大；在对出口产品质量进行动态分解后，文章研究发现政府与企业间人才配置对出口质量的负面影响主要源自于在位企业的企业内与企业间效应，而非进入与退出效应。     

考虑有限关注的多个信息交易者竞争交易分析

文章假设在一个具有唯一风险资产的金融市场中，存在多个风险中性的信息交易者、很多噪音交易者、风险中性的做市商三类交易者，其中信息交易者是有限关注的，他们通过权衡关注和竞争两种因素选择交易量。文章首先建立了信息交易者具有不同关注度的一般模型，然后建立了具有相同关注度的模型，通过求解唯一线性均衡，推导它的均衡特征，得出结论：信息交易者的交易强度、期望收益随着其他信息交易者关注度和信息交易者数量的增大而降低，随着自身的关注度的增大而增大；信息交易者数量较少时，期望收益随着信息交易者关注度的增大而增大；而信息交易者数量较多时，期望收益随着信息交易者关注度的增大起初快速增大，然后缓慢降低。     

Importing,exporting and performance in sub-Saharan African manufacturing firms

This paper examines productivity differences between internationally trading and non-trading firms using data on a sample of firms from 19 sub-Saharan African countries. The paper provides the first evidence of whether exporters, importers and two-way traders perform better than non-traders, and whether there are differences in performance between different types of trading firms in sub-Saharan Africa. Our results indicate that exporters, importers and two-way traders perform better than non-exporters, non-importers and non-two-way traders. We further find that two-way traders perform better than importers only or exporters only, results largely consistent with recent results for other countries and regions. Considering information on export starters, continuers and exiters we also present some evidence suggesting that there is no significant difference in performance between export continuers and starters.     

Trade and employment in Vietnam: how firms' trade matters

This paper aims to analyse how employment and wages change when a firm's trade status is altered. Using a detailed firm-level dataset of Vietnamese manufacturing enterprises, the study finds that how firms trade matters for firm employment and wages in Vietnam. The average effect of one-way trading (exporting or importing) is positive for both firms' total employment and female employment. Direct trading activities are associated with a higher level of employment than indirect trading activities by firms. The female employment effect of direct exports is nearly three times higher than direct imports. Indirect imports hurt firms' total employment and female employment. Both direct and indirect two-way traders experience higher growth in firm employment than direct-only traders. However, it is interesting to note that indirect two-way trading activities have a positive impact on female employment. Furthermore, the commencement of direct import is also associated with greater labour cost advantage.     

Higher productivity in importing German manufacturing firms: self-selection, learning from importing, or both?

This paper uses a newly available comprehensive panel data set for manufacturing enterprises from 2001 to 2005 to document the first empirical results on the relationship between imports and productivity for Germany, a leading actor on the world market for goods. Furthermore, for the first time the direction of causality in this relationship is investigated systematically by testing for self-selection of more productive firms into importing, and for productivity-enhancing effects of imports (‘learning-by-importing’). We find a positive link between importing and productivity. From an empirical model with fixed enterprise effects that controls for firm size, industry, and unobservable firm heterogeneity we see that the premia for trading internationally are about the same in West and East Germany. Compared to firms that do not trade at all two-way traders do have the highest premia, followed by firms that only export, while firms that only import have the smallest estimated premia. We find evidence for a positive impact of productivity on importing, pointing to self-selection of more productive enterprises into imports, but no clear evidence for the effect of importing on productivity due to learning-by-importing.     

International Trade and Firms' Heterogeneity under Monopolistic Competition

This article studies the interactions between international trade and firms' heterogeneity by proposing a tractable model consistent with the stylised facts. The model describes, in a general equilibrium framework, two economies producing and trading two goods, one homogeneous and the other differentiated. In the differentiated-good sector, firms are heterogeneous by their marginal cost, in a context of monopolistic competition with free-entry and exit. They incur a fixed production cost, but also a fixed cost if they choose to export. We show that trade in differentiated goods increases industry-wide efficiency, through two different logics: one defensive and import-driven; the other offensive and export-driven.     

How the Internet Promotes China's Exports: A Firm‐level Perspective

The development of information and communications technology (ICT), particularly the Internet, has reduced trade costs. However, it remains unclear whether these reduced costs are reflected in the “extensive margins” of firms’ exports (which refer to the probability of firms exporting) or the “intensive margins” (which refer to the value of firms’ export). To test this, we used the concepts of information cost and binary margins, an augmented trade model of firm heterogeneity, a two‐stage Heckman estimation, and data from the World Bank Enterprise Survey of Chinese firms in 2012. The results revealed that reduced trade costs from the use of ICT were positively related to extensive margins but that the connection with intensive margins was not significant. The results lead to the conclusion that reduced information costs related to a firm's exporting behavior were primarily reflected in variable trade costs. This study offers theoretical and empirical evidence for China's policies towards the Internet, which are relevant for the export of manufactured goods. The government should encourage the use of ICT to enhance firms’ export opportunities while facing current trade policy uncertainty.     

Effects of presidents’ characteristics on internationalization of small and medium firms in Japan

Recent heterogeneous-firm models of international trade suggest that productivity determines whether firms engage in export activity and foreign direct investment. In practice, however, many productive firms are not internationalized, whereas many unproductive firms are, which suggests that there are factors other than productivity that influence firms’ internationalization. This study uses a unique panel data set for Japanese small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to examine whether the personal characteristics of a firm’s president are factors in firm internationalization. We find that SMEs with a risk-tolerant, forward-looking president are more likely to be internationalized. These effects are large in magnitude, as is the productivity effect, which provides a partial explanation as to why many productive firms are not internationalized. In addition, we find that productivity has an insignificant effect on firms exiting export markets, whereas presidential myopia increases the probability of exit. The evidence further suggests that a firm’s initial export costs become sunk following its entry into export markets, which explains why many unproductive firms are internationalized.     

要素市场扭曲、交通基础设施改善与企业出口

文章基于Melitz（2003）企业异质性理论构建厂商出口决策模型，利用2005-2007年工业企业数据库，从要素市场扭曲角度分析交通设施影响企业出口的微观机制。研究发现，交通基础设施对企业出口倾向和出口数量具有显著的促进作用，在进入国内市场固定成本大于进入国际市场成本时，地区要素市场扭曲程度越高，交通基础设施的促进作用越明显。聚焦不同所有制的企业可以进一步发现，要素市场扭曲对非国有部门企业的抑制作用更突出，改善交通基础设施通过优化资源配置更有助于带动非国有企业的出口。研究结果还显示，交通基础设施和要素市场扭曲对企业出口的影响存在地区差异，交通基础设施和要素市场扭曲对中西部地区企业出口数量的促进作用比东部地区企业更大。这一结论不受内生性的影响。     

试论我国劳动密集型产品出口竞争战略的转变

长期以来,我国劳动密集型企业所实行的低成本、低价格的竞争战略促进了劳动密集型产品出口数量的快速增长,但也引发了贸易摩擦频生、价格贸易条件恶化等一系列问题,严重影响了我国外贸的可持续发展。本文通过对以上问题的剖析,阐述了我国劳动密集型产品的出口竞争战略从价格竞争转向以品牌竞争为主的非价格竞争战略的必要性,并从不同的角度分别分析了政府、行业协会和企业为了实现这种转变所应采取的措施。     

Export characteristics and output volatility: comparative firm-level evidence for CEE countries

The literature shows that openness to trade improves long-term growth but also that it may increase exposure to high output volatility. In this vein, our paper investigates whether exporting and export diversification at the firm level have an effect on the output volatility of firms. We use large representative firm-level databases from Estonia, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia over the last boom–bust cycle in 2004–2012. The results confirm that exporting is related to higher volatility at the firm level. There is also evidence that this effect increased during the Great Recession due to the large negative shocks in export markets. We find that export diversification mitigates volatility only in some cases. Exporting more products or serving more markets does not necessarily result in higher stability of firm sales.     

出口还是对外直接投资:中国企业“走出去”影响因素研究

通过建立一个企业的出口与投资决策模型,文章研究了企业出口与投资选择的影响因素,并采用2003～2008年中国制造业对外直接投资的国别数据,对影响制造业对外投资倾向的因素进行了实证检验。结果表明,发达国家与新兴市场国家的相对高工资水平是制约我国制造业对其直接投资的主要因素,而贸易成本的降低使得国内企业更倾向于出口而不是对外直接投资。文章的结果同时显示,东道国的实际收入水平与研发水平对企业直接投资具有一定的吸引力,但并不显著,中国企业的对外投资行为并没有在不同发展水平的国家表现出显著的差异。本文认为,在缺乏其他特定竞争优势的条件下,促进制造业对外直接投资还需要更多政策层面的支持。