Information barriers, export promotion institutions, and the extensive margin of trade

This paper assesses the role played by export promotion institutions in shaping the extensive margin of Latin American and Caribbean countries’ exports over the period 1995–2004. We find that the presence of offices of export promotion agencies abroad favors an increase in the number of differentiated goods that are exported, whereas a larger number of diplomatic representations in the importer countries seem to be associated with exports of a larger number of homogeneous goods.     

国际分割生产条件下我国的出口增长问题

自2009年开始中国出口总额一直保持世界第一的排名。我国的出口以工业制成品为主,而制成品生产的主要特征是国际分割生产。本文对国际分割生产条件下我国出口增长现状和存在的问题进行深入分析,提出了通过提升我国出口质量,以促进我国出口增长的对策。认为我国亟需转变出口增长模式,提高出口产品的技术含量和质量,获得国际分割生产的技术效应,促进出口产业链和产业的升级。     

Firm Heterogeneity and Export Pricing in India

We examine export pricing by Indian manufacturing firms in the early 2000s using a unique data set that matches firm characteristics with product and destination‐level trade data. We find that, in contrast to China and other countries, firm productivity is negatively associated with export prices, and export prices are negatively associated with distance while positively associated with remoteness. Our conjecture is that Indian innovation costs, which are higher than China's, drive down the scope for quality differentiation causing a negative association between productivity and prices. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first empirical evidence consistent with heterogenous goods and short quality ladders, a theoretical possibility noted in the study by Antoniades (2012), an outcome that arises here because of domestic Indian economic and regulatory features.     

The impact of regional trade agreements on the quality of export products in China’s manufacturing industry

In recent years, under the risks of anti-globalization trend and uncertainty of trade war, countries have been entering into bilateral and multilateral regional trade agreements (RTAs). This study constructs both theoretical and empirical models to examine whether these RTAs can improve the quality of exported products among Chinese manufacturing enterprises, thereby expanding on a new policy research area that focuses on improving Chinese export quality or import quality of RTAs trade partners from China. The study finds that RTAs’ clause quantity (measured by clause coverage rate) and clause quality (measured by law commitment rate) play different roles. The former can generate “spaghetti bowl” effect but the latter can significantly promote export quality for Chinese manufacturers. The study also finds that RTAs can promote balanced development among the various regions in China and that a new generation of binding clauses in the “WTO-X field” with more new clauses strongly affects efforts to improve the quality of products exported to high and upper-middle income markets. We also find that for most industries, signing high-quality RTAs helps to improve export product quality, but there are no effect for some industries with laggard or special advanced technology.     

Do Export Promotion Agencies Increase Exports?

In this paper, we examine the role of export promotion agencies (EPAs) in promoting exports from Japan and Korea. Looking at two home countries enables us to tackle endogeneity issues by controlling for both country‐pair time‐invariant characteristics and importing‐country time‐varying characteristics. Our empirical results indicate that EPA has a positive and significant effect on exports even when we control for endogeneity. However, the size of the effect becomes substantially smaller, implying the importance of addressing endogeneity in accurately measuring the impact of EPA on exports. In addition, we find that EPA's (marginal) effects are larger in exporting to low‐income trade partners than in exporting to high‐income trade partners.     

Export variety and export performance: Empirical evidence for the OECD countries

Export Variety and Export Performance: Empirical Evidence for the OECD Countries. — Does product variety matter for export performance? This has been suggested by the new trade theory. In the present paper, we investigate empirically whether increasing export variety has contributed to the export growth of the OECD countries. We calculate direct measures of export variety and estimate pooled export demand equations for 15 OECD countries. The econometric results suggest that producing highly differentiated export goods gives a competitive advantage which allows to sell more products.     

Multilateral Export Decompositions

We analyze exports along five margins to observe the changes of newly exported products, products removed from the export market, and continuously traded products to new, old, and exited destinations on export growth. We find export shares differ between developing and developed countries: 1) entering and exiting products are an important source of export value, but more so for developing than developed countries, 2) that continuously exported products to new destinations are a more important source of export value for developing than developed countries, 3) that though the removal of exiting products has a large impact on export value, the removal of products from one destination that continue to be exported elsewhere results in little loss to total export value, and 4) that larger and richer exporting countries have less opportunity to increase exports from new destinations than smaller and poorer exporting countries. Understanding the change in these margins across different types of countries may be important for formulating trade agreements and targeting of new trade partners.     

Quality of Firms’ Exports and Distance to Destination Countries: First Evidence from Germany

This paper uses a tailor-made new data set of 7,112,614 observations for export quality (measured by the unit value of exports) at the firm-product-destination level for German and the reporting year 2011. Data are from 119,280 firms that exported 4986 products (recorded at the HS6-level) in 1,632,731 firm-product combinations to 174 countries. The paper investigates for the first time the link between the quality of firms’ exports and the distance to destination countries for Germany. It is shown that, in line with theory, the quality of exported goods and distance to destination countries are statistically positively correlated.     

COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE IN JAPAN,KOREA, AND TAIWAN BETWEEN 1980 AND 1999: TESTING FOR CONVERGENCE AND IMPLICATIONS FOR CLOSER ECONOMIC RELATIONS

This paper seeks to explore the basis for a free trade agreement (FTA) between Japan and the Republic of Korea by comparing export patterns of these two countries with that of a nonmember—Taiwan—that is geographically close and is also a major exporter of machinery. After calculating indices of revealed comparative advantage (RCA) for 3‐digit SITC categories, we test for convergence of export patterns between each pairing of partners (Japan‐Korea, Korea‐Taiwan, and Japan‐Taiwan). We find that even though each partner has a statistically significant correlation of RCA indices, export patterns of Korea and Taiwan are converging with that of Japan, while in the case of Taiwan and Korea there is no significant convergence between their export patterns. Finally, we identify sectors where trade diversion is likely to occur and provide an upper‐bound estimate of the potential amount of trade that might be diverted from Taiwan by a Japan‐Korea FTA.     

The other trade war: Quantifying the Korea–Japan trade dispute

In mid-2019 a new trade war between Korea and Japan started heating up, while the U.S.–China trade war held the spotlight. This paper documents the recent Korea–Japan trade dispute and quantifies its economic impacts. We consider a set of non-tariff distortions—Japanese export controls combined with Korean boycotts of Japanese goods. We simulate the impact of these actions using a multi-region general equilibrium model calibrated to the GTAP version 10 accounts and observed trade responses in the Korea Customs Service data. We find a welfare loss of 0.144% ($1.0 billion) for Korea and 0.013% ($346 million) for Japan. Sectoral impacts include a 0.25% reduction in chemical production in Japan. In Korea the reduction in imports from Japan is offset by increases in domestic production and imports from other countries.     

日韩贸易摩擦的原因、影响及趋势分析

日本对出口韩国的生产半导体零部件的3种核心原材料采取管制措施,其根本目的在于掌握半导体乃至高技术领域的主导权。出口管制实施后,部分日本企业试图通过拓展其他国家市场来弥补因对韩出口管制造成的损失,也有些企业计划在海外设厂以便避开政府管制向韩国供应原材料。出口管制还导致日本产品在韩遭到抵制、韩国赴日游客锐减等。韩国通过半导体核心部件国产化、进口来源地多元化等对策,在一定程度上减少了贸易制裁对半导体行业的负面影响,使日本被迫放宽出口管制。由于日韩处于半导体全球价值链分工不同环节中,存在紧密的"一荣俱荣,一损俱损"的依存关系,因此,日韩贸易摩擦的缓和存在内在必然性。另外,RCEP签署以及中日韩自贸区谈判等外部因素会进一步促进日韩贸易关系改善。     

Foreign direct investment, processing trade, and the sophistication of China's exports

China's export structure has shown a rapid shift towards more sophisticated industries. While some believe that this trend is a result of processing trade and foreign direct investment, the evidence is mixed. This paper examines variations in level of export sophistication across China's manufacturing industries. We find that an industry's level of export sophistication is positively related to the share of wholly foreign owned enterprises from OECD countries and the share of processing exports of foreign-invested enterprises, and negatively related to the share of processing exports of indigenous Chinese enterprises. Evidence from the relative export prices of Chinese goods, which measure within-product export sophistication, shows a similar pattern.     

商品质量、市场信心如何影响出口绩效?——基于2013-2018年广东出口消费品企业的抽样调查

商品质量、市场信心与出口贸易关系是近些年学界及实务部门关注的热点问题。面对不断增加的国际贸易不确定性因素,落实"质量强国战略",走提质增效及可持续发展的出口贸易之路,客观上要求构建科学有效的出口评价体系。文章导入绩效评价理念,融合财务、战略、质量、信心等维度,建构出口绩效评价指标体系,利用这一体系,对2013-2018年广东出口消费品行业进行实证分析结果发现：出口商品质量显著正向影响出口绩效,出口市场信心对出口绩效存在正相关,并在前两者关系中产生正向中介效应。同时,异质性检验表明,相较于劳动密集型行业,资本密集型行业商品质量与出口绩效相关性更大,超大型企业和微型企业质量与出口绩效相关性更强。由此,追求出口绩效提升,宏观层面应出台导向性对外贸易政策,强化政策的可预期性,以增强企业对出口市场的信心;中观层面应提高出口商品质量标准,加强出口标准服务与质量监管;微观层面应引导出口企业更加注重国际标准的认知和执行,坚持与兑现顾客满意的市场理念。     

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。     

山东省出口商品结构与贸易发展方式的转变分析

通过数据分析,本文研究了1996～2008年山东省出口商品结构的演进及贸易发展方式的转变,并得出如下结论:在此期间,山东省整体出口贸易高速增长,出口商品结构不断优化,贸易发展方式获得转型;工业制成品的出口增速高于初级产品,机电产品的出口增速高于高新技术产品,机械及运输设备出口增速高于轻纺及其他一般制成品;贸易发展方式上则表现为一般贸易的出口高于加工贸易,呈现一般贸易、加工贸易和其他贸易竞相发展的良好格局。     

China and the Exports of Other Asian Countries

We analyze the impact of China’s growth on the exports of other Asian countries, distinguishing China’s demand for imports from its penetration of export markets. We account for the endogeneity of Chinese exports by applying instrumental variables in a gravity model with country-pair fixed-effects. We find that China’s crowding-out effect is felt mainly in markets for consumer goods and hence by less-developed Asian countries, not in markets for capital goods or by the more advanced Asian economies. Meanwhile, China has been sucking in imports from its Asian neighbors, but this effect is mainly felt in markets for capital goods. Hence, more and less developed Asian countries are being affected very differently by China’s rise. JEL no. E5, F4     

中间品进口、制度环境与出口产品质量升级

文章基于2000-2013年中国工业企业和海关进出口贸易微观匹配数据,在地区制度环境存在显著差异的背景下研究中间品进口、制度环境与对中国制造业出口产品质量之间的关系。实证研究结果表明：（1）中间品进口通过"竞争效应"、"知识溢出效应"、"中间品质量效应"以及"中间品多元化效应"机制影响企业出口产品质量,但提升效果会因企业所有制、贸易方式、中间品进口来源国、技术复杂度不同而具有显著的异质性;（2）制度环境改善一方面可以直接提升出口产品质量,另一方面强化了中间品进口对出口产品质量的提升效应,中间品进口与制度环境在影响出口产品质量方面存在互补性;（3）文章进一步从动态视角考察了进口持续期对出口产品质量的影响,研究得出二者呈现"U"型关系,短期进口无法提升出口产品质量,持续进口以及适时进入可以显著提升出口产品质量。本研究为中国出口产品国际竞争力提升,改善区域制度环境提供了理论与现实支撑。     

企业出口模式与出口产品质量:微观理论与经验证据

文章借鉴Khandelwal et al.（2013）扩展的产品质量异质性模型,构建了一个两国之间产品贸易的一般均衡模型,并推导企业出口模式选择影响产品质量升级的理论框架,再利用2000-2013年中国工业企业和海关数据构建双重差分模型对理论假说进行系统检验。结果发现：（1）直接出口企业对产品质量的提升效应明显高于间接出口企业,"反事实"检验和安慰剂检验的结果依然稳健。（2）通过异质性分析发现,东部地区企业出口的产品质量提升效应显著高于中西部地区企业,而且中西部地区的间接出口抑制出口产品质量提升;民营、外资企业直接出口和间接出口对产品质量提升效应均高于国有企业。（3）进一步研究企业出口模式的动态转换效应发现,企业由间接出口转向直接出口显著提升了出口产品质量,并且生产率较高的企业通过提升出口固定成本效率而加速出口产品质量升级。     

LATIN AMERICAN EXPORT SPECIALIZATION IN RESOURCE‐BASED PRODUCTS: IMPLICATIONS FOR GROWTH

Given Latin America's general specialization in resource‐based products, this paper focuses on the question of whether or not a country specialized in resource‐based products can have high rates of export and economic growth. To examine this question, an attempt is made to develop and apply a new taxonomy to a sample of resource‐based products exported by Latin American countries to the United States. This taxonomy is based on the role played by prices in the mechanism through which countries compete in specific international product markets. Resource‐based products are then classified as homogeneous, differentiated, or highly differentiated goods. The paper argues that exports of countries specialized in differentiated or highly differentiated goods tend to be much more dynamic than of those specialized in homogeneous goods.