Home bitter home: How labor protection influences firm offshoring

Drawing on the home country literature, we argue that firms headquartered or located in countries with strong labor protection may face challenges in their domestic operations. These firms are likely to initiate offshoring to enhance operational efficiency. Building on this argument, we also examine the boundary conditions moderating this proposed effect including labor productivity and employee stock ownership. Results based on a sample of information technology firms operating within five developed countries during 1990–2010 provide support for these arguments. These findings suggest that offshoring can be a partial exit strategy for firms to address the institutional challenges in their home country.     

Technological convergence,competitiveness, and welfare: A study of international manufacturing industries

In this study, a monopolistic competition model is used to investigate the effects of international technological convergence on factor rewards, output composition, and welfare. Four testable hypotheses on the impact of technological convergence on follower's and leader's competitiveness and welfare are presented. We then use 1993–2001 data from 128 manufacturing industries in 35 countries to test these hypotheses. Results show that followers' relative wages and global value-added shares increase with technological convergence. Followers benefit from convergence's positive income effect. Leader's own technological progress is the key to its welfare improvement, while terms-of-trade effects appear less important.     

Trade shocks,product mix adjustment and productivity growth in Italian manufacturing

In this paper, we use firm-level data on the universe of Italian manufacturing multi-product exporters to test whether demand shocks in export markets lead multi-product exporters to increase their productivity. The main mechanism behind the documented productivity gains is the reallocation of resources across products within firms (American Economic Review, 104, 2014 and 495; National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series No. 22433, 2016). Intuitively, the increased demand stemming from foreign markets will induce firms to adjust their product mix by moving inputs from low to high productive/profitable uses. We find that these productivity gains are significant and can explain between 1/10 and 1/2 of aggregate productivity growth in the manufacturing sector.     

Trading activities,productivity and markups: Evidence for Spanish manufacturing

This work analyses the firms' internationalisation strategies of importing intermediates and exporting output, and the potential rewards of these activities in terms of total factor productivity (TFP), as a proxy for marginal costs, and markups. It further deepens into the study of the relationship between internationalisation strategies and markups by disentangling whether it operates through affecting firms' marginal costs and/or firms' prices. The panel database employed in this paper is the Spanish Survey on Business Strategies (ESEE) for the period 2006–14. Results in the paper distinguish between SMEs and large firms and indicate that there is high persistence in the performance of these activities and in firms' TFP and markups. For SMEs, we obtain rewards from importing inputs as well as exporting output in terms of TFP and markups. For large firms, we obtain rewards in TFP from the importing activity and rewards in markups from the exporting activity. Finally, we find evidence that the effects of internationalisation strategies on markups are due to both a price channel and a marginal cost channel.     

Entry to foreign markets and productivity: Evidence from a matched sample of Turkish manufacturing firms

We examine the effects of international trading activities of firms on creating productivity gains in Turkey by using a recent firm-level data set over the period 2003–2010. We establish treatment models and investigate the productivity improvements of firms through trade by using propensity score matching techniques together with difference-in-difference estimates. Three different groups of treatment are constructed: (1) firms that are involved only with import activities, (2) firms that are involved only with export activities and (3) firms that are involved with both export and import activities. The results of the study suggest that both exporting and importing have positive significant effects on total factor productivity (TFP) and labour productivity (LP) of firms. Importing is found to have a greater impact on productivity of firms compared to exporting. Further, two-way trade is found to have more significant effects than those of one-way trade on firm productivity. Finally, our results indicate that international trade has greater impact on LP rather than TFP of firms.     

Technology gap,imported capital goods and productivity of manufacturing plants in Sub-Saharan Africa

This paper uses firm-level data from Ghana, Tanzania and Kenya to examine the effect of capital goods imports on domestic firms' productivity, and the role firms' technology gap plays in aiding the transmission of knowledge embodied in capital goods to domestic firms. The results show that increasing imports of capital goods and closing technology gaps have positive effects on productivity. Furthermore, domestic firms with technology standards farther from international best practices benefit more from capital goods imports. The results also imply that trade liberalization policy aimed at eliminating tariffs on capital goods will significantly improve the performance of technically incompetent firms in the African manufacturing sector.     

Open trade and skilled and unskilled labor productivity in developing countries: A panel data analysis

Abstract

This paper examines the effect of trade openness on the productivity of skilled and unskilled labor in a group of 36 developing countries using panel data and fixed effect approach. We have developed and utilized an empirical model that readily lends itself to testing the hypothesis posed. Our results support the hypothesis that trade openness has a positive and significant impact on labor productivity for both skilled and unskilled labor in the sample countries. We also observe that the beneficial effect of trade openness is relatively stronger for the skilled labor than the unskilled labor. We conclude that contrary to the claim made by Mayda and Rodrik (2001 Mayda, A. M. and Rodrik, D. 2001. “Why are some people (and countries) more protectionist than others? A cross country analysis”. Mimeo: Harvard University.  [Google Scholar]), skilled workers in developing countries may oppose protectionism. When adjusting for the purchasing power parity, the impact of trade openness on labor productivity, although positive and significant, is not as pronounced as it is for other definitions of openness.     

Economic development and growth convergence in China

We investigate the issue of per capita real GDP growth convergence of the Chinese economy. The shrinkage method for panel data models is used to estimate the convergence rates of the individual provinces. The empirical evidence shows that growth convergence exists in China. Our analysis allows us to estimate the convergence rates for individual provinces. The results also show that the low-income provinces of the middle and the western regions are experiencing higher convergence rates.     

经济开放条件下劳动力市场灵活性与内资企业劳动生产率——基于中国省市和行业数据的经验研究

本文系统地分析在经济开放条件下,劳动力市场灵活性对中国工业部门1999-2009年间内资企业的劳动生产率的影响。分析了经济开放条件下劳动力市场灵活性通过影响外商直接投资FDI流入间接影响劳动生产率和直接影响劳动生产率的两种渠道。此外运用3sls和2sls方法从地区和行业两个层面估计劳动力市场灵活性、FDI和国际贸易等因素对内资企业劳动生产率的影响。结果表明,国际贸易对内资企业生产率的影响不明显,但是伴随着国际贸易的技术外溢促进了地区劳动生产率;FDI具有较为显著的提高我国工业部门劳动生产率的效应;地区数据和行业数据估计都证实了劳动力市场灵活性可通过FDI间接作用和本身的直接作用促进内资企业的劳动生产率提高。     

Why domestic outsourcing is leading America's reemergence in global manufacturing

With cost advantages from manufacturing in Asia and Mexico steadily deteriorating, U.S. firms are reassessing the option of domestic outsourcing to remain globally competitive. The challenge in evaluating international versus domestic outsourcing strategic options lies in that first-movers are extremely and intentionally vague about how they reach their decisions. The purpose of this article is to reveal these reasons by providing statistical and firm-based evidence on five major factors that are influencing the decision regarding where U.S. companies should manufacture to optimize their gross profits. The factors include (1) increasingly competitive U.S. labor costs; (2) increasing productivity of the U.S. workforce; (3) increasingly competitive domestic production costs; (4) incentives from federal, state, and local governments; and (5) improved synchronization of production with other business functions.     

Global convergence of consumer spending: Conceptualization and propositions

The convergence versus divergence debate has persistently presented a puzzle in the scholarly literature. Forces of globalization created a wave of convergence. Yet, the recent worldwide events have changed the course of globalization, slowing its seemingly unavoidable forward direction. It is, therefore, incumbent upon international business scholars to reexamine the convergence versus divergence debate in the contemporary world economy. Despite the central role that global convergence plays in international business decisions, the literature is lacking a conceptualization of the convergence construct in terms of consumer spending behavior. Offering a new perspective derived from the convergence-divergence-crossvergence (CDC) framework and the coevolution theory, the authors define and conceptualize the convergence construct associated with consumer spending behavior. The proposed conceptual framework is comprehensive, offers refinements to the convergence phenomenon, and leads the way for further development of new theories in the international marketing domain.     

对外贸易对劳动分配比例的影响——基于中国省级面板数据的分析

文章分析了对外贸易对劳动分配比例的影响机制,并利用1996-2006年期间29个省级单位面板数据进行了实证分析。估计结果表明,对外出口对不包括三大直辖市的26个省级单位的劳动分配比例产生了正面影响,对外进口则产生了负面影响,这可能是对外出口和对外进口的劳动生产率效应和就业效应有所不同。东部地区的估计结果与不包含三大直辖市的26个省级单位的估计结果类似,中西部地区的对外贸易没有对劳动分配比例产生显著影响。对外贸易对所有29个省级单位劳动分配比例的总效应为正。     

On the growth effects of North-South trade: the role of labor market flexibility

This paper examines the impact of intensified North-South intra-industry trade from a growth theoretic perspective. It incorporates unemployment into Helpman’s [Econometrica 61 (1993) 1247] model of North-South trade. We assume that those Northern workers who lose their jobs due to imitation remain unemployed for a given (expected) length of time, so that imitation in the South causes frictional unemployment. It is shown that the shape of the relation between the (exogenous) rate of imitation and the (endogenous) steady-state growth rate depends on the degree of labor market flexibility, as measured by the outflow rate from unemployment. It is monotonically increasing for high outflow rates, hump-shaped for intermediate outflow rates, and monotonically decreasing for low outflow rates. The realization of the potential growth gains from trade thus presupposes labor market flexibility, and the model is capable of accounting qualitatively for the divergent growth performances in the US and Europe in the recent past.     

Imports and productivity: the impact of geography and factor intensity

Usingmicro-data for Dutch firms, we argue that both the geographic component (what country is the import from) and the intensity component (what type of good is imported) is crucial for measuring and understanding productivity premia associated with importing. For example, our results indicate that the productivity premium associated with importing technology-intensive products from Taiwan differs from importing unskilled-labor-intensive products from Switzerland. We show that increasing distance and decreasing levels of development of the origin economy are negatively associated with the productivity premia of importing. Similarly, these premia are larger for technology- intensive goods and smaller for unskilled-labor-intensive goods. This implies that the geographic-intensity markets are unique and cannot be lumped together. In addition, a more dispersed import portfolio (the extensive dimension) is always positively associated with firm-level productivity.     

Delay and dynamics in labor market adjustment: Simulation results

We simulate numerically a trade model with labor mobility costs added, modeled in such a way as to generate gross flows in excess of net flows. Adjustment to a trade shock can be slow with plausible parameter values. In our base case, the economy moves 95% of the distance to the new steady state in approximately eight years. Gross flows have a large effect on this rate of adjustment and on the normative effects of trade. Announcing and delaying the liberalization can build – or destroy – a constituency for free trade. We study the conditions under which these contrasting outcomes occur.     

Assessing productivity in the presence of negative data and undesirable outputs

Few studies address the presence of negative data and undesirable outputs in productivity assessment. This study proposes a range-adjusted measure model that uses a non-radial Malmquist productivity index to estimate dynamic productivity in the presence of negative data and undesirable outputs. Banking-industry data are used to demonstrate the proposed model. The results show that during the 2007–2009 global financial crises, bank productivity deteriorated, mainly because of technical changes, and smaller banks suffered smaller financial losses. Finally, a decision making matrix based on the analysis results is presented to show the implications of the proposed method.     

云南省产业结构趋同度比较研究

通过对云南省10年来三次产业发展数据进行系统地分析,发现省内整体呈“二三一”的产业结构类型,二、三产业比重接近,但产业产值总量仍在低水平徘徊,产业结构升级优化任务依然艰巨。以省内地级市县10年间三次产业变动为基础．将昆明市作为比较对象分析省内产业结构相似状况,利用产业结构相似度系数模型进行测算分析来了解各地级市产业结构特征。最后,基于结果对三次产业发展提出相关政策建议：加快农业服务业发展,提升工业生产效率,完善旅游及服务业。     

Making sense of Bolkestein-bashing: Trade liberalization under segmented labor markets

An increase in the range of tradable goods is analyzed in a two-country Dornbusch-Fischer-Samuelson style model, where labor cannot relocate to another sector upon a non-expected increase in the range of goods that can be traded.The effect of liberalization on the terms of trade tend to favor the poorer country (the “East”), if (as assumed) the most sophisticated goods are tradable before reform. Second, under ex-post liberalization, there exists a class of workers in the West who are harmed because they face competition from Eastern workers and cannot relocate to other activities. But if the East's economy is relatively small, their wage losses are not very large. Things are different, however, if there exist asymmetries in labor market institutions, such that upon reform, labor can relocate in the East but not in the West. Some workers in the West can then experience very large wage losses. Thus, rigid labor markets in the West magnify opposition to reform there.     

Aesthetic labor and visible diversity: The role in retailing service encounters

This study endeavors to investigate the role of the appearance of customer service staff in forming customer perceptions. It also aims to fill the gap in existing knowledge by exploring the notion of visible diversity, for example, ethnicity, age, gender and perceived sexual orientation of store staff in service encounter from the customers’ perspective. The study adopted a qualitative, inductive approach in data collection using a sample of 30 customers from leading Australian fashion retailers. This study identifies three themes explaining customer perceptions of staff's aesthetic labor, namely mirroring appearance, matching appearance, and charming appearance, which can be explained by the social identity theory, role theory and aesthetic capital. It is found that staff appearance might affect customers’ intention to revisit but does not guarantee sales. In addition, based on signaling theory, the results show that age, ethnicity, gender and perceived sexual orientation of the retail store staff are meaningful factors in determining customers’ attitudes and behavior. This study is one of the first that takes aspects of visible diversity into account along with aesthetic labor and customer experience in a retail setting.     

Productivity of travel agencies in Spain: the case of Alicante

The main objective of this study is to analyse the productivity of travel agencies located in Alicante (Spain) in order to obtain results that will complement other previous findings based on efficiency. Malmquist indices and the smoothed bootstrap method have been selected to carry out this analysis. In addition, the Mann–Whitney U test has been adopted to study the relationships between levels of productivity, ownership type, location and experience. In the light of this new perspective, the results do not present an optimistic view of the evolution of the economic activity of the agencies. Furthermore, some of the variables, such as location, have a different effect.