Time zones and German exports: first evidence from firm-product level data

Review of World Economics - This paper uses a tailor-made new data set of 3,390,871 observations for German exports to non-EU countries at the firm-product-destination level in 2011 to investigate...     

Chinese exports and productivity gains: panel evidence

This paper examines the impact of imports from China on the labour productivity levels of importers, using unbalanced data from 1994 to 2006. It is hypothesised that imports from China increase importer countries' labour productivity levels. Using cross‐section, fixed and random‐effect models, a statistically significant, positive relationship is found between the share of a country's imports from China and labour productivity in the manufacturing sector of that country. Moreover, it is found that imports from China have a larger impact on China's main Asian‐Pacific trade partners and countries with higher manufacturing shares in their total exports.     

Foreign ownership,technological capabilities and clothing exports in Sri Lanka

Drawing on recent developments in applied international trade and innovation and learning in developing countries, this paper examines the links between firm-level export performance, foreign ownership and the acquisition of technological capabilities in a sample of 205 clothing enterprises in Sri Lanka. Econometric analysis indicates that foreign ownership, firm size, human capital, technological capabilities and geographical location are all positively associated with export shares. Furthermore, higher levels of technological capability are associated with larger firm size, university-level manpower and in-house technological effort. Micro-level investigations are a complementary input to developing policies for promoting private sector competitiveness in outward-oriented developing countries.     

Higher education expansion and domestic value added in exports: Theory and evidence from China

This paper analyzes the impact of China’s higher education expansion on domestic value added in exports. To be specific, we firstly construct a nested CES production function model, with import inputs being complementary to skilled labors, and substitutable to unskilled labors. By exploiting China’s higher education expansion as a quasi-natural experiment, this paper accurately examines the causal effect of the human capital expansion on the domestic value-added in exports. The results show that human capital expansion has negative effects on the domestic value-added in exports, and this result is driven by import inputs increase and processing trade engagement. We also find that the effect is more prominent for processing trade, foreign-invested firms, high-tech firms and disciplines of science and engineering.     

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.     

Impact of the Internet on the exports in ocean-based manufacturing: Firm-level evidence from China

Ocean-based manufacturing (OBM) is closely related to the advancement of information technology, and the dramatic expansion in Internet access necessitates an analysis of the Internet’s impact on marine economy. Combining firm-level manufacturing census data with provincial-level Internet development data, this study is the first to examine how Internet penetration across China’s provinces in the 1999–2007 period influenced exports in OBM. The results indicate that the Internet rollout boosted exports in OBM firms, showing a significant technology-driven effect. Furthermore, the effects of the Internet on micro-behavior differ significantly between OBM and non-OBM firms. For OBM firms, the results suggest that the main mechanism at work is a productivity effect rather than a scale effect, whereas the results for non-OBM firms suggest the opposite. This study also emphasizes the cross-regional and cross-industry heterogeneity in the effects. The heterogeneity analysis supports a greater impetus of the Internet on capital and technology-intensive marine industries and non-state-controlled OBM firms. Moreover, the improvement of Internet penetration can significantly promote participation in international trade by OBM firms in large- and medium-sized cities. Compared with the Bohai Rim Area, the southern regions, including the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta, have shown more rapid growth in marine industries due to the Internet rollout.     

The minimum wage,exports, and firm performance: Evidence from Indonesia

This paper examines the interrelationship between changes in the provincial minimum wage, firms’ export behavior, and firms’ performance in Indonesia. In this regard, we apply a two-stage least squares regression analysis to detailed firm-level data of manufacturing enterprises during 2002–2014. We find that an increase in the minimum wage is associated with a decrease in a firm’s employment and productivity, but increase in its probability of exporting and markup. We also use the 2012 minimum wage reform in Indonesia to conduct a difference-in-difference analysis to further mitigate the potential endogeneity of minimum wage regulation. Our findings are generally robust to alternative estimation methods. Moreover, quantile regression results indicate that the average wage, firm size, and the education level of workers also affect the predictions. Above all, this study suggests that Indonesian exports and the country’s comparative advantage in international markets are not negligibly affected by higher labor costs caused by the growth in the minimum wage.     

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.     

Taxation and Foreign Direct Investment Inflows: Time Series Evidence from the US

Abstract

This study investigates long run and short run relationships between the corporate income tax rate and foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows to the US. The tax rate is found to exert a significant negative effect on total FDI and transfer fund inflows in the long run. A 1% decrease in the tax rate would increase total FDI by 2.4% and transfer funds by 4.2%. Collectively, results suggest that the US can use tax policies to attract FDI from abroad. Concern over the possibility of tax competition among countries to attract foreign capital is warranted.     

Valuing school quality, better transport, and lower crime: evidence from house prices

Housing prices within urban areas exhibit highly localized variationthat cannot be explained solely by differences in the physicalattributes of dwellings. We consider the role of local amenitiesand disamenities in generating price variation within urbanareas, focusing on three highly policy-relevant urban issues–transportaccessibility, school quality, and crime. Our survey of therecent empirical literature highlights what is known and whatis not known on these issues, and considers the relevance andreliability of this evidence for policy design and evaluation.Although there are serious empirical challenges, we argue thatresearch on housing values based on careful research designscan offer credible estimates of the social value of place-specificattributes and amenities.     

Genetic distance,cultural differences,and the formation of regional trade agreements

Review of World Economics - Genetic distance between countries’ populations has been shown to proxy cross-country differences in cultures and preferences. In an unbalanced panel of 133...     

Trade protection and market power: evidence from US antidumping and countervailing duties

Contingent protection measures were originally intended to protect domestic producers from what were considered to be “unfairly” cheap imports. However, due to the way in which these policies are designed and implemented, they have been heavily criticised for their greatly disruptive effects on markets, and particularly on competition. The analysis presented in this paper contributes to the debate by studying the impact of US antidumping (AD) and countervailing (CV) duties on domestic producers’ price-cost margins (PCM). To this end, the study takes advantage of a long panel of 4-digit industries in the United States covering 26 years of AD/CV activity, including the periods before and after the changes to AD/CV laws introduced following the Uruguay Round (UR). It finds evidence of a positive effect of AD/CV duties on PCM for the period prior to the UR, but the effect seems to disappear in the years following the UR. The analysis accounts for potential endogeneity in AD/CV duties, as well as the intensity of the protection granted.     

Foreign direct investment-led growth: evidence from time series and panel data

This paper estimates the impact of foreign direct investment(FDI) on capital accumulation, and output and total factor productivity(TFP) growth in the recipient economy. Time series and paneldata evidence are provided for a sample of OECD and non-OECDcountries in the period 1970-90. Although FDI is expected toboost long-run growth in the recipient economy via technologicalupgrading and knowledge spillovers, it is shown that the extentto which FDI is growth-enhancing depends on the degree of complementarityand substitution between FDI and domestic investment.     

Foreign outward direct investment and exports in Austrian manufacturing: Substitutes or complements?

Foreign Outward Direct Investment and Exports in Austrian Manufacturing: Substitutes or Complements? — The relationship between foreign outward direct investment and exports is crucial for assessing the impact of increased internationalization by foreign outward direct investment on a country’s welfare. Three models of trade and FDI are reviewed to generate hypotheses on their direct relationship over time as well as on common determinants. The propositions are empirically examined with time-series cross-section data for Austrian manufacturing. The results indicate a significant complementary relationship between FDI and exports in the eighties and early nineties. Moreover, long-run multipliers of exogenously increased FDI and exports are calculated. They are found to be positive but small in magnitude.     

Geography and firm exports: new evidence on the nature of sunk costs

This paper presents an examination of the trading patterns of individual firms, looking at their coverage of export markets and movements into and out of destinations. This analysis is made possible by access to a new survey data set of Irish firms, which includes detailed information on firm characteristics and on the destinations of their exports over a 2-year period. In line with Eaton et al. (Am Econ Rev 94:150–154, 2004), we find that a large number of firms serve only the domestic market and many exporting firms export to a single foreign market. Although there is little movement of firms into and out of exporting, firms’ involvement in individual export markets is much more dynamic. Over one-third of firms change their market coverage, usually by entering or exiting one additional market. This is consistent with an interpretation where the bulk of any sunk cost encountered in exporting is incurred during the initial entry to the export market. Subsequent entry to additional markets may be made easier by prior export experience, which could help reduce the sunk cost of extending market coverage.     

Corruption,market quality,and entry deterrence in emerging economies

In many emerging economies incumbent firms often use dubious means to deter entry of other firms. We analyze this scenario in a three‐stage game of entry deterrence. The incumbent has incomplete information about the entrant's costs but can increase this cost by resorting to unfair means (e.g. bribing a politician who harms the entrant). We completely characterize the optimal bribe and show that this depends on the “fairness index” and the “differentiation” parameter. We also show that zero bribes need not maximize welfare and market quality. Our results seem to be compatible with anecdotal evidence from emerging economies such as India.     

Extreme heat and exports: Evidence from Chinese exporters

Does extreme heat have causal effects on exports? If so, how do the effects evolve? This paper exploits monthly fluctuations in the number of extremely hot days within a city to identify their effects on firm-level exports in that city. We find robust evidence that hot temperatures have persistent adverse effects on firm-level exports. Specifically, export losses gradually arise following a heat shock, beginning from an undetectable impact and eventually accumulating to a large and significant impact. An additional >30 °C day in a month could generate cumulative losses up to 0.83% of a firm's annual exports twenty-four months later. The negative effects of extreme heat are mainly through its adverse impacts on the firm's investment, capital, and production output. Capital-intensive sectors and FDI-related enterprises are among the most affected by high temperatures. Our findings support the “no-recovery” hypothesis after weather extremes and have implications for future climate change policies.     

Russian food exports: Trends,opportunities, and priorities

This paper considers the problems of developing Russian food exports under the conditions of neoglobalization, the formation of interstate and transcontinental free trade zones, and the complication of regional and world economic relations.     

Growth,exports and cointegration: An empirical investigation

Zusammenfassung Wachstum, Exporte und Ko-Integration. Eine empirische Untersuchung. — In diesem Aufsatz wird Johansens multivariate Ko-Integrationsanalyse auf viertelj?hrliche Daten für das BIP, den Konsum, die Investitionen und die Exporte von sechs L?ndern angewandt. Es zeigt sich, da\ in vier F?llen der Export keine ko-integrativen Beziehungen zu den anderen drei Variablen eingeht. Demgem?\ gibt es keine starke empirische Evidenz für die Hypothese vom exportinduzierten Wachstum.

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Resumen Crecimiento, exportaciones y cointegración: una investigatión empirica. — La aplicación del análisis de cointegración multivariado de Johansen al PBI trimestral, al consumo, a la inversión y a las exportaciones de seis paises industrializados indica que en cuatro casos las exportaciones no forman parte de las relaciones de cointegración entre las tres otras variables. Por ello, no se obtiene evidencia empírica importante en favor de la hipótesis del crecimiento dirigido por las exportaciones.

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Résumé Accroissement, exportation et co-intégration: une analyse empirique. — L’application de l’analyse de co-intégration multivariate de Johansen aux données trimestrielles du produit national brut, de la consommation, de l’investissement et de l’exportation de six pays industrialisés indique qu’en quatre cas l’exportation n’influence pas les relations de co-intégration entre les trois autres variables. Par conséquence, l’évidence empirique ne supporte pas fortement l’hypothèse que la croissance économique soit stimulée par l’exportation.