The effect of immigrants on the extensive and intensive margins of trade

This study examines the impact of immigrants on the extensive and intensive margins of South Korean exports. Since trade data contain excessive zero trade flows, we adopt recently suggested Poisson and Gamma pseudo maximum likelihoods. ???Our finding shows that immigrant stock in South Korea has significant effect on both the extensive and intensive margins of South Korean exports. Immigrants’ network seems to decrease variable as well as fixed costs of trade.     

The 2009 Recovery Act: Stimulus at the extensive and intensive labor margins

This paper studies the effect of government stimulus spending on a novel aspect of the labor market: the differential impact of spending on the total wage bill versus employment. We analyze the 2009 Recovery Act via instrumental variables using a new instrument, the spending done by federal agencies that were not instructed to target funds towards harder hit regions. We find a moderate positive effect on jobs created/saved (i.e., the “extensive margin”) and also a significant increase in wage payments to workers whose job status was safe without Recovery Act funds (i.e., the “intensive margin”). Our point estimates imply that roughly one-half of the wage payments resulting from the act were paid at the intensive margin. To provide a theoretical underpinning for the estimates, we build a micro-founded dynamic model in which a firm meets new government demand with a combination of new hiring and increasing existing workers׳ average hours. Faced with hiring costs and an overtime premium, the firm responds by increasing hours along both margins. Our model analysis also provides insight into how government spending policy should be structured to lower the cost of generating new jobs. Finally, we catalogue survey evidence from Recovery Act fund recipients that reinforces the importance of the intensive labor margin.     

Process tracing of extensive and intensive processes

ABSTRACT

This essay briefly analyzes the introduction of process tracing to the political science and political economy methodological toolkit. It then proposes a theory-guided variant of process tracing and distinguishes between its application in extensive and intensive type of processes. It argues that the comparative advantage of process tracing vis-à-vis other social sciences research methods lies in its potential to uncover the causal mechanisms that link the constitutive events of intensive type of processes. It shows that theory-guided process tracing of intensive processes can be successfully applied to illustrate, test and produce theory.     

Deconstructing gravity: trade costs and extensive and intensive margins

Abstract This paper uses data on US exports to decompose exports into the number of exporting firms (the extensive margin) and average export sales (the intensive margin). We show how a range of proxies for trade costs has different impacts on the two margins. Distance has a negative effect on both margins, but the magnitude is considerably larger for the extensive margin. Most of the variables capturing language, internal geography, infrastructure and import cost barriers work through the extensive margin. We show that these results are consistent with a Melitz‐style model of trade with heterogeneous firm productivity and fixed costs.     

Over the ROC methodology: Productivity,economic size and firms’ export thresholds

We identify the minimum combinations of productivity and “economic size” that Italian manufacturing firms need to achieve in order to access international markets. These “export thresholds” are estimated by applying, for the first time in economics, the ROC (receiver operating characteristics) methodology. In this way, we detect a model‐based (rather than a subjectively determined) cut‐off that allows to identify exporters and nonexporters and provides a measure of each firm’s distance from the export threshold. This methodology also paves the way to investigate other determinants of thresholds, thus helping to design more effective policy interventions to reduce barriers to trade.     

Impact of China on trade in electronic products

Using 6-digit product-level data of exports in electronics, this paper finds robust evidence that China's exports adversely affect both the intensive export margin and the extensive export margin of its competitors for the 1992–2018 period. The displacement effects of China's exports on the intensive margin apply especially for the group of intermediate and capital electronic goods and are much more robust and significantly larger in magnitude than the displacement effects found in other studies using aggregated trade data. Finally, we find that China's displacement effect is increasing in China's advantage relative to its competitors in terms of human capital index and internet access of its population.     

Contractual frictions and margins of trade

A recent body of work has shown that quality of national institutions that enforce written contracts plays an important role in shaping a country’s comparative advantage. The current paper contributes to this literature by providing a comprehensive analysis of the mechanisms through which institutional frictions affect the pattern of aggregate trade flow by distinguishing its effect on the intensive and extensive margins. We find that better contracting institutions not only increase the probability of exporting (the extensive margin) but also enhance the export sales after entry (the intensive margin), particularly in industries where relationship-specific investments are most important. With around two-third to three-fourth share (depending on the definition used), the contribution of institutions along the intensive margin dominates that along the extensive margin. The benefits of improved institutions, particularly via the intensive margin, favor the less developed countries over the more developed ones. In addition, better contracting institutions increase the probability of survival of export products in more contract-intensive industries in particular. These findings are robust to measuring the intensive and extensive margins using a more granular export data based on firm-level aggregates, as well as the variety and destination based definitions.     

Factors affecting trade in services: evidence from panel data

In the course of economic development, nations have typically progressed through stages in which agriculture, then manufacturing and, finally, services predominate. Concerns around the sustainability of manufacturing and goods export-led growth raise the importance of trade in services. In the context of a panel model, controlling for the factors that determine trade in general, we examine the determinants of trade in services in a sample of 46 countries over the decade 2004–2015. We find an ambiguous pattern of effects from institutional quality but strong evidence of the importance of trade in goods for trade in services.     

The role of extensive and intensive margins and export growth

We investigate and compare countries' export growth based on their performance at the extensive and intensive export margins. Our empirical approach is motivated by an extension to the Melitz (2003) model of heterogeneous firms in which exporters are subject to a one-time sunk cost and also a per-period fixed cost. With imperfect information a firm may enter export markets but shortly exit when it learns its per-period fixed costs. We apply this insight to disaggregated export data and confirm that indeed most export relationships are very short lived. We then show that the survival issue is a significant factor in explaining differences in long run export performance. We find that developing countries would experience significantly higher export growth if they were able to improve their performance with respect to the two key components of the intensive margin: survival and deepening.     

Extent and intensity of investment with multiple capital goods

Overall investment is the product of the number of capital goods for which triggering has occurred (the extensive or reductive margin) and the depth of investment per capital good (intensive margin). Based on a longitudinal plant-level data and using dynamic panel techniques we investigated the validity of the hypothesis that the intensity of investment increases as its extent increases. Our results indicate a strong linkage between the extent and intensity of investment decisions, finding which holds both for positive and negative investment decisions. This linkage suggests that the decision on how many capital types to initiate investment is closely connected to the decision regarding the depth of investment expenditures. Moreover, the intensity–extent derivative remains positive but its magnitude decreases with plant size, providing indirect evidence for higher complementarity between capital types for smaller plants.     

Structural gravity equations with intensive and extensive margins

Abstract .  Recent trade models with heterogeneous firms have changed the interpretation of gravity equations. Chaney (2008) shows that the effect of distance on the number of exporters and average exports depends on key parameters characterizing the elements of market structure. We use firm-level export data to estimate the structural parameters of Chaney's model. Controlling for the fixed costs of exporting, our estimated parameters match, for 28 out of 34 industries, the model's theoretical predictions. Our industry parameters allow us to evaluate separately the effect of transport costs and tariffs on trade, without having to resort to detailed data on trade frictions.     

Intra-good trade in Germany: a first look at the evidence

This article contributes to the literature by using newly released comprehensive transaction-level data on all exports and imports to document facts about the amount of intra-good trade – the simultaneous export and import of identical goods by one firm – in Germany. Combined data for trade transactions and for characteristics of a representative large sample of trading firms are then used to report differences between firms that export and import different goods only (inter-good traders) and firms that engage in the simultaneous export and import of identical goods (intra-good traders). We find that the share of intra-good trade in total trade was some 17% in Germany in 2012. Intra-good trade matters. This share differs widely between broadly defined groups of goods and between industries. Controlling for detailed industry affiliation, intra-good traders differ significantly from inter-good traders – they are larger, more human capital intensive, more productive, have a higher R&D intensity and are more profitable. The data, however, are not rich enough to reveal the direction of causality between intra-good trade and firm performance and to investigate empirically the reasons why some firms engage in intra-good trade.     

补贴对中国企业出口行为的影响——基于配对倍差法的经验分析

文章利用配对倍差法控制内生性后,基于新新贸易理论,利用1999-2007年中国工业企业微观数据,经验分析了补贴对企业是否出口及出口规模的影响。分析结论是,补贴显著提升了企业的出口可能性和出口规模;相对于未补贴企业,补贴企业出口概率增长率高出30%-110%,出口规模增长率高出30%-50%;对外资企业的影响大于本土企业,对私营企业的影响大于国有企业;但补贴对出口规模的影响在入世后特别是近年来才显现。这意味着补贴对出口的影响可能存在门槛效应。从政策层面看,尽管政府可以通过补贴等政策手段帮助企业走出国门,但要在国际市场实现持续增长仍要靠企业自身的核心竞争力。     

Ethnic networks and trade: Intensive versus extensive margins

Ethnic networks have been associated with increased international trade, although studies have not differentiated between entry into foreign markets and trade expansion. We find that ethnic networks increase trade on the intensive margin but not on the extensive margin.     

Bank Credit,Firm Entry and Exit,and Economic Fluctuations in China

This study explores how a worsening bank credit quality affects firms＇ entry and exit decisions （i.e., changes in the extensive margin）, and how the extensive margin variation amplifies the transmission of financial and technological shocks to the real economy. Using a vector autoregression （VAR） model, our empirical evidence indicates that deteriorating Chinese bank credit conditions have a significant negative influence on net firm entry to the market. To explore the potential mechanism behind the stylized fact, we establish a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium （DSGE） model featuring fixed production costs, loss-related bank credit quality shocks and an endogenous balance sheet constraint which restricts the aggregate credit supply by the level of the banks＇ net worth. Model simulations indicate that the interaction of financial constraints and the extensive margin variation amplifies the impact of bank credit shocks on the real economy. When banks experience loss-related financial shocks, bank credit tightens, which increases firms＇ external financing costs. When the firms＇ expected income is not sufficient to cover the fixed production cost, some firms exit from or stop entering the market. As a result, the economy displays a severe recession and a slow recovery.     

The intensive and the extensive margins: not only an international issue

Empirical evidence shows that quantity (intensive margin) and variety availability (extensive margin) have effects of different magnitude on populations’ welfare. Indeed, the pattern of a market dynamics may cause changes in welfare inequality. Low income consumers benefit more from quantity than high income consumers, who are more interested in enjoying variety. These facts have been usually addressed as consequences of trade liberalization by international trade theory. However, market dynamics are also present within the borders of every country. It is important to understand what forces, unrelated with international trade, affect these dynamics. This paper explores the transmission of different real shocks into market dynamics in a new-Keynesian closed economy. Results show that the source of the shock is crucial to determine the magnitude and direction of the effects on each margin.     

Reconciling the WTO Effects on Trade at the Extensive and Intensive Margins

Empirical studies examining the impact of World Trade Organization (WTO) membership have produced disparate results. These studies, however, have focused on total aggregate trade flows. In this paper, we utilize disaggregated product level data to examine the impact of WTO membership on the product level extensive and intensive margin of imports. Utilizing the Poisson Pseudo-Maximum Likelihood (PPML) estimation that allows for heteroskedasticity in trade data and accounting for several estimation issues, we do not find a positive impact on either margins between WTO member country-pairs. Once we examine asymmetries in trade flows across countries based on their level of development, we find that developing WTO members experience an increase in the extensive margin from industrial member countries. Additionally, the industrial WTO members also experience an increase in the extensive margin from developing WTO members. Results suggest that WTO facilitates the North–South trade relationship, which has been largely absent in trade literature.     

Examining crop price effects on production decision and resource allocation: an ex-ante approach

This article examines the output price effects on the US crop production, employing an ex-ante approach to the differential systems of input demand and output supply. The estimation results of the differential input demand show that the expansion of crop production leads to an increase in acreage (i.e. extensive margin) and a proportional rise in input usage improving yield per acre (i.e. intensive margin). The substitutable relationship between fertilizer and land supports that crop producers have an option to choose either intensive or extensive margin in response to changes in their relative prices. In addition, the estimation results of the differential output supply highlight that the composition of crop supply can be altered by changes in ex-ante crop prices. The estimation results suggest that crop producers substitute corn supply for the supply of cotton, wheat and soybeans or vice versa. Based on the estimated elasticities, the decompositions of profit-maximizing input demand are conducted, which reveals that a change in ex-ante crop prices is associated closely with resource reallocation.     

Coffee exports and industrialization in Brazil

We investigate the dynamic relationship between coffee exports and machinery imports in Brazil from 1869 to 1939. Our tests reveal cointegration and bidirectional causality in the temporal sense. This evidence suggests that foreign exchange real revenues from coffee exports were important for the onset of industrialization, as machinery imports proxy for real investment demand. Capital growth, in turn, also helped to boost the country’s exports.