基于中国经验重构新新贸易理论的分析框架

异质性企业贸易模型是新新贸易理论的基本分析框架,该模型从企业生产率异质性角度分析企业出口的决定因素,得到企业拥有高生产率是保证其出口的重要条件,从而出口企业的生产率要高于内销企业的结论。不过,对中国企业的经验研究却发现,出口企业的生产率未必高于内销企业,甚至低于内销企业,即中国出口企业存在"生产率悖论"。目前,对于"生产率悖论"的研究主要集中于经验分析,并没有提出一个合理解释该现象的理论模型。文章从扩展异质性企业贸易模型的角度,建立了一个旨在解释"生产率悖论"的数理模型。尽管该模型对"生产率悖论"具有解释作用,但是并没有否定生产率对企业出口的作用。文章进一步使用较新的LP方法计算了中国制造业企业的生产率并运用统计法检验了出口企业"生产率悖论"的存在性,检验结果表明中国制造业大部分行业不存在"生产率悖论"。总之,文章研究认为生产率只是企业出口的一个必要条件而不是充分条件,这也重新构建了新新贸易理论的分析框架。     

Using demographic identification to estimate the effects of board size on corporate performance

Motivated by agency theory, we investigate the effect of board size on corporate outcomes. To address endogeneity, we exploit the variations in the director-age populations across the states in the US. We argue that firms with access to a larger pool of potential directors tend to have larger boards. Consistent with this notion, our empirical results show that firms located where the size of the director-age population is larger have significantly larger board size. Because the director-age population represents broad demographic trends outside of any firm’s control, it is unlikely related to firm outcomes or policies and should be exogenous. Using the director-age population as our instrument, we estimate the effects of board size on firm value and profitability. Our approach is less vulnerable to endogeneity and is more likely to show a causal effect.     

Minimum Wages and Firm Productivity: Evidence from Vietnamese Manufacturing Firms

ABSTRACT

This paper empirically examines the minimum-wage impact on firm productivity. Using a detailed Vietnamese firm-level dataset from 2010 through 2015, the regression results suggest that firms raise their labor productivity, total factor productivity, capital intensity and revenue in response to increased minimum wage standards. Firms that pay their workers below the minimum wage react more positively in raising their labor productivity than high-wage firms. Minimum wages has had a more pronounced impact on firms’ labor productivity, total factor productivity and capital intensity since the uniform wage rate was introduced for both domestic private and foreign-invested enterprises in 2012.     

不完全信息条件下的出口与信贷约束——来自中国的理论与证据

文章讨论了在"银行-企业"不完全信息条件下,国内企业和出口企业面对的信贷约束为何不同.由于企业的生产率等信息对于银行而言属于内部信息,银行为了保持激励相容,会向企业提供少于企业所需最优数量的贷款.这种贷款的约束构成了企业面对的信贷约束.出口企业的运输时间越长,相比国内企业就会面临更紧的信贷约束.使用中国企业的数据验证这一理论,我们发现,对中国企业而言,出口业务占比越大、运输时间越长、生产率差异越大,企业面临的信贷约束也就越紧.     

Do immigrants affect the profile of U.S. exporters?

We highlight that an increase in the stock of immigrants corresponds with greater numbers of U.S. firms that engage in exporting to foreign markets. Our results are obtained from the estimation of a multi-level mixed effects model. Overall, the effect of immigrants is relatively larger among small- and medium-sized enterprises and is smaller among large-sized enterprises. There are, however, considerable differences, both in the magnitude and in nature of the observed effects of immigrants on manufactured and non-manufactured goods exporters of comparable size categories. Similarly, heterogeneity is found in the effects of immigrants on the numbers of small-, medium-, and large-sized exporters across home country cohorts that are grouped by World Bank income classifications and by broad regional classifications of destination markets. These findings imply that immigration has the potential to alter the profile of domestic firms involved in exporting.     

Multi-product firms,heterogeneous quality and exporting behaviour: product-level evidence from the movie industry

This article examines how quality affects heterogeneous multiple-product firms’ exporting behaviours. We develop a structural model of the global movie market, including both consumers’ movie demand choices and firms’ exporting decisions. A movie studio is a multi-product firm that releases many movies within a year. We model movie quality as a combination of firm-level appeal and product-level attractiveness. We find that both studio-level and movie-level heterogeneity affect demand for movie, and movie-level heterogeneity is relatively more important. We also explore the counterfactual effects of quality improvement and trade liberalization on trade. Our results show that improvement of quality increases both intensive margin and extensive margin of trade. By elimination of quota, we find that trade liberalization increases movie exports to a foreign market by 19%. The results of our study can also help improve understanding of trade in the service industry. For instance, we do not find a positive correlation between the foreign entry costs and the geographic distance, as in the case of manufacture goods.     

The productivity trend in Iran Evidence from manufacturing firms

Iran has been experiencing slow growth for the past ten years. Using plant‐level information, we show that on average firm‐specific productivity in manufacturing sectors declined at the rate of 2.6% annually, while large top decile firms experienced a modest growth in productivity between 2005 and 2011. We decompose this trend and find that within‐plant variation is its main driving force while the between firms and industries component is insignificant. We test several alternative explanations that may contribute to these negative trends. We show that the subsidy reform had a negative effect, while privatization seems to have had no effect. Private management not affected productivity growth, while firm size is associated with higher productivity growth. Also, we find that productivity growth decreases with the energy intensity of the firm. We also find that R&D expenditures significantly increase productivity growth, while the R&D sales ratio is about 0.5% in manufacturing sectors, which is about one‐fifth of the world average. A one‐percent point increase in R&D expenditures increases productivity growth by 0.5%.     

企业生产率、国外市场知识与企业出口额

本文运用企业异质性贸易理论,利用分行业上市企业的面板数据,将企业规模作为控制变量,研究了企业生产率、国外市场知识与中国企业出口额的关系。结果显示:企业生产率和国外市场知识对企业出口额的影响显著为正,影响效果存在行业差异;作为控制变量的企业规模,对企业出口额的影响存在不确定性,或正向相关或负向相关或呈U形关系。     

Exports and left‐behind children: Empirical evidence from the China Migrants Dynamic Survey

The opportunity for jobs and high wages induced by exports have attracted rural laborers in China to work in the cities temporarily, and some parents must leave behind their children in rural areas, called left‐behind children (LBC). Notably, the cause of LBC has not been investigated carefully. In this study, we combine the 2010 to 2015 Chinese trade data with the data from the 2010 to 2015 China Migrants Dynamic Survey(CMDS) to identify LBC based on the young children of migrants not living with their parents in the cities, and empirically test the effects of exports on LBC. The results show that under the same income level and other circumstances, the increase in export dependency significantly increases the probability of the migrants’ young children becoming LBC. We construct an instrumental variable to manage the potential endogeneity problems and conduct many other robustness checks, and all the results are consistent. We also examine the heterogeneous effects of exports on LBC and observe that migrants with low income, low education, rural hukou (area of origin) status, and in manufacturing sectors are more vulnerable to exports.Key Words: Exports; Internal Migration; Left‐behind children     

The role of export-driven entrepreneurship in economic development: A comparison of software exports from India, China, and Taiwan

In the puzzle of economic development, there is moderate agreement around one issue: that entrepreneurial, export-led development is likely to produce higher economic growth rates than inward-looking development. This paper begins by taking an overall look at the size and competitiveness of the economies of India, China, and Taiwan, with particular reference to the software and the information technology (IT) sectors. It then focuses on the role of software export entrepreneurship in India and Taiwan as exemplars for other sectors and for formulation of government policy. In Taiwan, successful exporters constitute a model deemed worthy for other companies to emulate. In India, whether the booming software sector will prove to be a sufficient exemplar and catalyst for change throughout the economy and government remains an open question. The paper concludes by taking a look at another related export sector—IT-enabled service exports. Throughout the various sections of the paper, government policy implications remain an important backdrop.     

Exploring the causal effect of religious piety on dividend policy: evidence from historical religious identification

Theory suggests that religious piety is associated with greater risk aversion and more conservative financial policies. Returns to shareholders through dividends are much more certain than returns through capital gains expected to be realized far into the future. We hypothesize that religious piety leads to a higher likelihood of dividend payments. We exploit the variation in religious piety across the US counties and estimate the effect of religion on dividend policy. To draw a causal inference, we use historical religious piety in 1971 as the instrument. Our two-stage least squares results confirm that religious piety induces firms to pay larger dividends.     

Technology flows between sectors and their impact on large-scale firms

In this article we highlight the importance of technology flows between sectors and their impact on the labour productivity of large-scale corporations. Based on theoretical considerations, we explore technological spillovers between the sectors of an economy. Large-scale corporations usually focus on certain sectors but make use of a wide range of technological knowledge from other sectors. Thereby, technological knowledge built up in sectors by continuous R&D activities does not spill over without bounds but is directed by firms’ absorptive capacities. We use firms’ patent portfolio to empirically calculate the sector affiliation and therewith the firms’ absorptive capacities in order to estimate the impact of technology diffusion on labour productivity. Fortune 500 firms serve as data base.     

Explaining fiscal decentralization and the role of ethnic Diversity

This paper considers the causes of fiscal decentralization with a specific focus on the role of ethnic diversity. To do so, I employ an instrument for ethnic diversity based on the origin of anatomically modern human life. Using two measures of decentralization that capture decision making autonomy and accounting for the depth of divisions between ethno-linguistic groups using the structure of language trees, I find that ethnic diversity has a positive effect on the degree of decentralization. It is the amount of fractionalization towards the leaves of the trees, where groups are more numerous and less distinct, that drive decentralization.     

Regional effects of export tax rebate on exporting firms: Evidence from China

This paper extends a model from 2003 to separate the direct and indirect impact of an export tax rebate on the intensive margin of firm‐level export sales at the subnational level. The direct impact of the rebate is associated with a reduction of an exporting firm's variable costs, while the indirect impact manifests itself through higher regional wages as a result of increased demand for local labor. First, the empirical results imply that a 1 percent rise in the export tax rebate rate increases the export sales among continuing exporters by 0.2 percent through the direct channel. Second, through the indirect channel, a 1 percent difference in the regional rebate causes a 0.02 percent difference in exporters' sales growth. Both effects are statistically significant, and are consistent with the model's predictions.     

Effects of a holiday trip on health and quality of life: evidence from a natural experiment in South Korea

We examine whether having a holiday trip affects an individual’s well-being, namely quality of life, health status, stress level and health behaviours. We use the two-stage estimation method to control for endogeneity of a travel experience, exploiting a natural experiment of distributing Travel Vouchers at random among qualified applicants in South Korea in 2012. We find that, for applicants whose decision to travel is influenced by receiving a voucher, a travel experience has no significant effects on the traveller’s well-being measured 3–12 months later. We also find that the OLS estimates overstate benefits of a travel.     

员工教育与中国制造业企业生产率——基于世界银行调查数据的研究

通过构建异质性企业模型,本文从理论上探讨了员工教育对企业生产率的作用,并基于世界银行2012年中国制造业企业调查数据进行检验。结果显示:在控制人口和经济密度等因素基础上,各省(市)平均出生率是企业员工教育合格的工具变量;提高员工教育水平可显著促进制造业企业生产率增长。另外,员工教育在大企业中对生产率的促进作用明显高于中小企业;资本密集度提高有利于发挥员工教育对企业生产率的促进作用;生育率与员工教育负相关,出生率每增加1‰,员工平均教育将减少0. 423年。在添加控制变量、分组检验和更换工具变量后,所得结论依然稳健。     

企业出口与生产率的关系——基于中国工业企业数据的实证研究

采用1998—2007年中国工业企业数据,对出口与生产率的关系进行了再探讨,具体研究了出口企业是否具有更高的生产率、企业在做出口决策的过程中是否存在自我选择机制以及出口行为本身是否能促进企业生产率的增长。研究结果显示:当用TFP衡量生产率时,企业出口决策中存在自我选择机制,因此出口企业的生产率相对较高——这与异质企业贸易模型的预期结果一致;当用劳动生产率(人均附加值)衡量企业生产率时,则"生产率悖论"存在,即出口者的生产率反而较低;当企业刚进入出口市场时,其生产率会经历短期的快速增长,但从长期来看,出口对企业生产率增长的作用在整体上是负向的。     

中国上市公司的治理改进:2002-2006

文章以2002年和2007年我国上市公司的自查报告为基础,选择了18个指标构建了公司治理指数,并以此对我国上市公司的治理状况及其5年间的改进程度进行了综合评价。结果显示,治理指数与公司价值显著正相关,治理指数每上升1点,公司价值约增加0.3个百分点;5年间上市公司的治理水平有明显改进,这种改善总体上会带来公司价值的提升,但这一结论存在一定的内生性。进一步研究表明,上述治理改进的效果是股东权利、董事会与监事会、公司独立性和内控与激励机制等治理机制共同作用的结果。文章还发现,公司风险程度、融资需求、外部市场化水平、兼并或借壳上市等公司特征在一定程度上驱动了上市公司的治理改进。     

A further investigation of the link between trade and income

When the foreign subsidiary has minority local ownership and MNF engages in transfer pricing, it intrafirm exports are always from the country with the higher marginal cost. Further, permitting deferral from home taxation of non-repatriated foreign profits changes the nature of intrafirm trade from efficient to perverse even when the foreign subsidiary is fully-owned by the MNF. Intrafirm trade differs significantly from that between unrelated buyers and sellers, and tariffs on such trade (when it is perverse) can restore global production efficiency. [F12]     

Internet use and agricultural productivity in rural Vietnam

The use of the internet is growing rapidly and has become an engine for economic development. However, few studies have examined the impact of internet use on agricultural production, and the results are not yet conclusive. Employing a dataset of more than 2000 observations in rural Vietnam, our study analyses the impact of internet use on agricultural productivity using the heteroscedasticity-based instrument approach suggested by Lewbel, Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, 2012, 30, 67–80 and examines the heterogeneity and distribution of the impact using quantile regressions. Our results show that internet use has significant and positive effects on agricultural productivity. However, these effects are heterogeneous across population groups. The positive effects of internet use are stronger for households with a lower level of education, with a young and female head, and from ethnic minorities. The benefits are also found to be skewed towards the group of farmers at the bottom of the productivity distribution. Therefore, we propose facilitating the diffusion of the internet, since it not only boosts agricultural productivity, but also reduces productivity inequality. In addition, we recommend promoting rural education, supporting local markets, investing more in irrigation systems, and facilitating farm mechanisation as these factors are found to contribute to increasing agricultural productivity.