Export Behavior and Firm Productivity in German Manufacturing: A Firm-Level Analysis

This paper examines the causal relationship between productivity and exporting in German manufacturing. We find a causal link from high productivity to presence in foreign markets, as postulated by a recent literature on international trade with heterogeneous firms. We apply a matching technique in order to analyze whether the presence in international markets enables firms to achieve further productivity improvements, without finding significant evidence for this. We conclude that high-productivity firms self-select themselves into export markets, while exporting itself does not play a significant role for the productivity of German firms. JEL no. F10, F13, F14, D21, L60     

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.     

R&D and the Export Decision of New Firms

Recent literature on the firm‐level decision to export has focused on identifying factors that influence the export decision by firms regardless of the number of years they have been in operation. This article, alternatively, examines the factors that influence new firms to export within the first four years of operation. The results support two key findings that have commonly emerged from entrepreneurial case studies: (1) There is a positive link between research and development (R&D) and early internationalization, and (2) international ties of managers, as is evidenced by the effect of foreign‐born owners, positively impact the firm's decision to export. The former result is the emphasis of this article. In addition, we find that innovation spillovers from neighboring firms impact the export decision of new firms that engage in R&D.     

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.     

Upstreamness,exports, and wage inequality: Evidence from Chinese manufacturing data

In this paper we investigate within-firm wage inequality across heterogeneous industries that hold different positions in the domestic value chain, and across heterogeneous firms that have different exposure to trade. We find that the wage inequality problem is more severe in upstream industries than in downstream ones, and among firms with greater exposure to trade (i.e., larger export share of sales). Our findings support both classic and new new trade theories on wage inequality. In downstream industries where Chinese firms are typically engaged in processing and assembly work with intensive use of unskilled labor, trade leads to less wage inequality within firms. However, trade also introduces pro-competitive effects which usually benefit exporters and their skilled labor. The results hold after various checks and controls for robustness.     

Export Spillovers to Chinese Firms: Evidence from Provincial Data

Multinational firms are important conduits of managerial skills, foreign market linkages, and technology. Foreign export spillovers associated with multinational firms have the potential to reduce entry costs for local exporting firms. This paper examines whether exports by multinational firms increase the probability of exporting by domestic Chinese firms. The findings from the Probit estimation highlight the varying relationships between multinational exports and local foreign entry based on the type of ownership. The results from separating foreign-invested enterprises into overseas Chinese companies and OECD-based multinational firms suggest that the export activity of the former does not increase the probability of exporting by local firms, whereas the latter positively influence the export decision of local firms, particularly under processing trade.     

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。     

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.     

国际贸易中计价货币选择的决定因素研究——基于微观视角的局部均衡分析

在既有的基于微观视角的包含两币的局部均衡模型中引入交易货币,发现国际贸易中计价货币选择的决定因素依次为:卖方市场结构、出口品差异化程度、出口国所占目标市场份额、其他出口商的计价策略和汇率的稳定性.在同质性商品的国际贸易中,计价货币的非同质性会导致货币垄断计价.其中,进口方货币的垄断计价地位较为稳定,出口方货币垄断计价情...     

Entering new country and product markets: does export promotion help?

Entering new export markets is primarily a discrete choice. Even though several empirical papers have used modeling strategies consistent with this fact, no study has examined the effects of public policies aimed at affecting this decision within this setting. In this paper we assess the impact of trade promotion activities on export outcomes using trade support and highly disaggregated export data for the entire population of exporters of Uruguay, a small developing country, over the period 2000–2007 to estimate a binary outcome model that allows for unobserved heterogeneity. We find that trade supporting activities have helped firms reach new destination countries and introduce new differentiated products.     

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.     

Trade Propensities and Foreign Ownership Shares in Indonesian Manufacturing

This paper examines the relationship between trade propensities and foreign ownership shares in Indonesian manufacturing in 1992 and 1994. Foreign plants had relatively high trade propensities, and plants with high foreign ownership shares had the highest export propensities. Differences in import propensities among foreign ownership groups were relatively small. It might be argued that trade propensities determine foreign ownership shares in Indonesia, which historically waives foreign ownership restrictions for firms that export much of their output. However, this paper argues that causation runs from foreign ownership shares to trade propensities, because multinational firms have strong incentives to restrict access by uncontrolled affiliates to their international marketing networks, and because the relationship persists even when the effects of policy distortions are accounted for. Correspondingly, ownership restrictions that discriminate among foreign ownership groups are likely to reduce the exports of foreign multinational affiliates, but to have a much weaker effect on imports.     

Exploring the Margins of Dutch Exports: A Firm-Level Analysis

This paper utilizes new Dutch transaction-level data on international trade to investigate the microeconomic patterns of Dutch exports. First, we show that self-selection based on ex-ante productivity drives firms’ export decisions, which we subsequently relate to various sources of fixed market-entry costs: governance and regulatory quality, the extent of corruption, and cultural proximity. Second, we provide evidence that firms learn to export by trial and error, so as to obtain experience in exporting and to gather knowledge about the potential of foreign markets. Such experimentation appears to be reflected in the volatility of a firm’s export product portfolio. More volatility is associated with a higher survival rate in the export market. Finally, we draw conclusions on the potential implications for trade policy.     

Integration and the export behaviour of firms: Trade costs,trade volumes and welfare

Integration and the Export Behaviour of Firms: Trade Costs, Trade Volumes and Welfare. - This paper analyses a model in which, because of fixed costs associated with exporting, only a proportion of firms in an industry engage in international trade. Economic integration (a reduction in trade costs) increases the proportion of firms trading and reduces the total number of active firms as relatively small non-trading firms are replaced by larger trading firms. There are welfare gains from integration, but because of the adverse effects of integration on the total population of firms these gains are smaller than in the standard model where all firms export.     

Product Cycles, Innovation, and Exports: A Study of Indian Pharmaceuticals

This paper studies the product cycle and neo-technology theories of trade in the context of generic pharmaceuticals. It analyzes the export performance of 131 Indian pharmaceutical firms for the period 1989–2004. The results indicate that technology proxied by foreign patent rights has a positive impact on exports. This suggests that developing countries with innovation skills for process innovations are capable of penetrating international markets in the later stages of the product cycle by using patents, which were the barriers to trade in the early stages of the product cycle.     

中国企业从出口到OFDI的渐进国际化——基于不确定性的视角

国际市场的不确定性会促使企业遵守循序渐进的国际化进程。对此,文章通过构建二阶段模型,阐释了不确定性条件下企业如何由出口向OFDI动态转型。在此基础上,文章选取2000-2006年中国海关数据库、中国工业企业数据库和境外投资企业名录的匹配数据,采用倾向得分匹配法（PSM）检验出口对OFDI决策的影响,进而采用Cox回归分析不确定性条件下出口经验与OFDI决策的关系。结果发现,不确定性越强,出口经验对OFDI决策的作用就越重要,但是该作用会随着在同一市场连续出口时间的延长而依次递减;按所有权分类的实证结果进一步显示,私营企业和外资企业出口对OFDI的影响持续降低;集体企业在最初第二、三年的出口经验对OFDI决策影响最大,之后逐年降低,呈倒"U"型;国有企业的出口经验对OFDI的影响始终呈现不规律变化。     

Innovation and exporting: evidence from Spanish manufacturing firms

This paper investigates the relationship between innovation and the export behavior of firms using data from a representative panel of Spanish firms over 1991–2002. It presents a simple theoretical model of the firm decision to export and innovate that guides the econometric analysis. Consistent with the predictions of the theoretical model, the econometric results suggest a positive effect of firm innovation on the probability of participation in export markets. The results further reveal the heterogeneous effects of different types of innovations on the firm export participation. In particular, product upgrading appears to have a larger effect on the firm export participation than the introduction of cost-saving innovations. These findings are robust to firm unobserved heterogeneity, dynamic specifications, and to the use of instrumental variables to control for the potential endogeneity between innovation and exporting.     

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.     

异质性企业贸易理论研究综述

以Mehtz（2003）模型为基础,对异质性企业的研究形成了两个分支：一支是沿着Melitz（2003）假定不断发展,推出了众多可以进行实证检验的假说;另一支是由Antras开创,沿着厂商内生性边界展开,将新制度经济学的不完全契约思想纳入一体化和外包的商业模式选择。文章对异质性企业理论及其拓展模型进行梳理,并对Helpman（2008）加入劳动异质性变量后异质性企业贸易理论的最新拓展进行了介绍。