Commercial policy and dynamic adjustment under monopolistic competition

We explore liberalization of trade in differentiated commodities using a model featuring monopolistic competition and capital accumulation. We identify a mechanism of ‘cumulative causation’ in investment and an associated externality leading to under-accumulation. We provide long-run analytical results for a stylized core model and offer a quantitative treatment of transitional and sectoral issues using a disaggregate computational model. The aggregate welfare gains from unilateral liberalization are about three times larger than in the competitive case with constant returns, and they exhibit a characteristic pattern of generational incidence. Small export subsidies may be self-financing.     

出口与企业绩效:主要论题与最新进展

异质性企业贸易模型将企业的异质特征作为研究变量,加之企业层面数据的日益丰富和可用性,使对国际贸易问题的研究由宏观产业层面转向更加微观的企业层面。本文以企业异质性为焦点,对近年来大量关于出口与企业绩效之间关系的理论研究和实证研究的文献进行系统梳理,厘清了出口与企业绩效之间的因果关系,并做出简要评述。     

Spatial competition with endogenous location choices: An application to discount retailing

This paper examines the importance of geographical differentiation in store location decisions of firms in the retail discount industry. Using a novel data set that includes the store locations and accompanying market conditions for all stores belonging to the Wal-Mart, Kmart, and Target chains, we study the factors that influence the entry and location decisions of these firms. The model involves an incomplete information game between the three players where each firm has private information about its own profitability. A key feature of our modeling approach is that it permits asymmetries across firms in the impact of exogenous market characteristics and competitive interaction effects. Variations in the exogenous firm specific characteristics, such as the distances from the market to firms’ headquarters and the nearest distribution centers, serve as exclusion restrictions and provide the source for model identification. Parameter estimates of the payoff functions are used to predict the equilibrium market structure under a variety of market conditions that provide insights into the competitive landscape of the industry. Results show that all firms exert a strong negative impact on competitors when they are in close proximity, but the effect decreases with distance to rivals suggesting strong returns to spatial differentiation in this industry. Target stores fare well under competition except when these competitors are in close proximity. Wal-Mart’s supercenter format is found to be the most formidable player as it substantially impacts competitors even at a large distance. We also find significant asymmetries across players in their response to market conditions and competition interactions.

Export strategy,export intensity and learning: Integrating the resource perspective and institutional perspective

Export intensity (EI) has been widely examined as a performance outcome of exporting firms. To date, studies on the determinants of EI have generated mixed and even contradictory results. To reconcile such inconsistencies, this study dichotomizes export strategy in emerging economies into two distinctive types, expansion-oriented vs. escape-oriented, with the former inspired by exploiting firm-specific competencies as portrayed by the RBV and the latter motivated by avoiding the domestic institutional deficiencies as informed by the institutional perspective. Different from prior findings in the International Business literature, this research finds that a firm’s extremely high EI might not result from their superior competencies. Instead, high EI firms might focus on export mainly for the purpose of escaping from their home country’s deficient institutional environment that places extra burdens in terms of costs of doing business. Such escape-oriented exporters are more sensitive and responsive to changes in the environment while they do not enhance their learning as much as those expansion-oriented exporters. Furthermore, institutional environment has heterogeneous impacts on firms with different ownership types. Our study helps integrate the insights from both the RBV and the institutional perspective, and our dichotomization of export strategy adds precision and sophistication to the understanding of EI and export performance. Our hypotheses are supported by an empirical study based on a sample of exporting firms in China between 1998 and 2007.     

外商直接投资对我国出口增长和出口结构的影响研究:1983-2006

采用我国1983-2006年的年度数据,实证研究了外商直接投资(FDI)与出口增长、出口商品结构以及不同来源国的FDI对出口绩效表现的影响,结果表明外商直接投资不仅促进了我国的出口扩张,而且提升和优化了我国的出口结构,不同来源国的FDI的出口绩效表现存在明显差异。     

浙江省民营企业的出口现状与对策

本文通过对2004年浙江省民营企业(以下简称民营企业)出口数据的统计分析,归纳了浙江省民营企业出口的主要特点、成因,并针对问题提出了进一步促进浙江省民营企业出口的对策。     

上海市高科技产品出口存在的问题及对策分析

上海市提出“科技兴市”战略以来,高科技产品出口取得了显著的成绩,但同时也存在着一些制约因素,若不消除这些障碍,必将延缓上海市高科技产品出口的进一步发展。本文结合上海高科技产品出口目的地贸易状况的统计数据,旨在通过对当前上海高科技产品出口贸易中存在的问题及其面临的历史机遇的分析,探索提高上海企业科技竞争力的对策,以增强本地企业培育科技竞争实力、获取巨大的社会经济效益。     

Exporting and productivity in business services: Evidence from the United States

Does exporting make firms more productive, or do more productive firms choose to become exporters? This paper considers the link between exporting and productivity for a sample of firms in US business services. We find that larger, more productive firms are more likely to become exporters, but that these factors do not necessarily influence the extent of exporting. This conforms with previous literature that there is a self-selection effect into exporting. We then test for the effect of exporting on productivity levels after allowing for this selection effect. We model both the relationship between exporting and productivity, and a simultaneous relationship between export intensity and productivity after allowing for selection bias. In both cases we find an association, indicating that productivity is positively linked both to exporting and to increased exposure to international markets.     

出口贸易与全要素生产率增长的动态效应分析——基于中国省际面板数据的角度

大量的研究表明,出口贸易通过出口学习效应、出口溢出效应、出口规模效应和出口竞争效应促进了生产率的发展。我国省际面板数据的动态实证研究表明,出口量的增长不能促进我国全要素生产率的发展;人力资本和研发活动作为衡量一国吸收能力的指标,是发挥出口—生产率效应的关键因素;我国鼓励出口政策和引进外资政策的实施,使得出口—生产率效应具有明显的区域色彩。     

技术标准战略、技术贸易壁垒与出口竞争力的关系——基于浙江出口美日欧的实证研究

本文在量化技术标准战略和技术贸易壁垒的基础上,利用浙江1995-2007年出口美日欧三国的数据构建了时间序列/截面数据模型,实证研究了浙江技术标准战略以及国外技术贸易壁垒的实施对浙江出口美日欧市场竞争力的影响程度。研究结果显示:浙江技术标准战略、国内技术获取、国际市场购买能力等因素与浙江产品出口美日欧市场的竞争力存在显著正相关关系,同时来自美日欧FDI的负向影响和技术贸易壁垒的正向影响都与传统观点不符。在此基础上,本文对提高浙江出口竞争力提出了具体的政策建议,包括将技术标准战略和外国技术贸易壁垒分别作为提高出口竞争力的内部动力和外部动力,以及高度重视从省外的技术获取等。     

Foreign outsourcing, exporting, and FDI: A productivity comparison at the firm level

This paper documents how productivity varies with globalization modes, based on a firm-level data set covering all manufacturing industries in Japan without any firm-size threshold. Only a small fraction of firms outsource, export, or invest abroad. Foreign outsourcers and exporters tend to be less productive than the firms active in FDI or in multiple globalization modes but more productive than domestic firms. This productivity ordering is robust even when firm size, factor intensity, and/or industry are controlled for. This paper also finds that outsourcers are on average less capital intensive than other globalized firms.     

Enhancing or inhibiting: The impact of investment in political ties on the link between firm innovation and productivity

Whether investment in political ties enhances or inhibits firm innovation has not been well understood in the literature. Theoretically, proactive use of political ties could help firms gain favourable political resources, thereby enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of firm innovation activities. However, investment in political ties might conflict with innovation in internal resource orchestration processes. Based on a sample of 9693 firms across 27 transition economies, I find that the effect of investment in political ties on the link between innovation and productivity is based on type of innovation and type of political investments. Although bribery does not show any significant influence on the link between either product or organizational innovation and firm productivity, managerial time invested in political ties weakens the positive relationship between organizational innovation and productivity.     

Efficiency and productivity comparisons between outsourcers and non-outsourcers: Evidence from a metafrontier production function with endogenous switching

This paper aims to compare productivity and technical efficiency (TE) between outsourcers and non-outsourcers with an empirical methodology that accounts for both heterogeneous production technologies and non-random sample separation. Using plant-level data on six two-digit manufacturing industries in Taiwan over the period 2002–2005, the endogenous switching regression and the stochastic metafrontier methodology enable us to generate TE scores that are comparable across production units that operate under different technologies without the standard assumption in the literature that the outsourcing status is out of the control of the plant and that outsourcers and non-outsourcers use the same technology. We find that outsourcers are, on average, more technically efficient and technologically advanced than non-outsourcers. Productivity differences account for the lion's share of the outsourcer–non-outsourcer output gap.     

Effects of intra-brand competition between private labels and manufacturer brands: Empirical results from the Italian market

A proliferation of private labels in European food retailing has been evident for several years now. The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of competition between manufacturer brands and private labels on assortment and pricing practices by Italian grocery retailers. Previous studies emphasized both pro-competitive and anti-competitive effects of private label development. In this study, within an empirical analysis based on scanner data from Symphony IRI Group, all fast moving consumer goods product categories are investigated over a period of two years (from September 2008 to September 2010). The empirical results indicate that in Italy there is no clear and strong evidence of decreases in manufacturer brands' assortments, prices, and turnover caused by a proliferation of private labels. In particular, analyzing at the same time all categories and all retailers' data in the Italian Market there is not much evidence for the existence of a strategic trade-off between manufacturer's and retailer's brands.     

Transactions,standardisation and competition: Establishing uniform sizes in the British wire industry c.1880

When science could not provide a solution to transaction problems in the British wire industry c.1880, market groups had to negotiate a business solution. This involved converging towards a ‘one-size-fits-all’ standard: a process requiring compromises and cooperation between competitive firms, and solving coordination failure through state intervention. This paper demonstrates how different groups held different notions of ‘ideal’ standards depending on the incentives they faced. Reconciling these differences was an institutional, rather than a technological, process. The paper also analyses why, historically, dominant producers cooperated to set industry standards when faced with an imminent lock-in on ‘wrong’ standards imposed on the industry.     

Human capital and FDI: Development process of the developing country in an overlapping generation model

We construct an overlapping generation model with human capital accumulation to analyze the effect of human capital level on foreign direct investment (FDI) in a small open developing country. In particular, we assume that manufactured goods have the human capital intensive technology and young agents choose whether to work or to educate themselves. When the human capital level in the developing country is sufficiently small, manufactured goods firms do not conduct FDI and the economy in the developing country is trapped in poverty. If the government of the developing country levies a tariff on the imports of manufactured goods, manufacturers conduct FDI, and the economy in the developing country can escape from the poverty trap.     

汇改对我国中小企业出口的影响测度与预测——基于汇改后月度数据的实证分析

当前我国中小企业出口经营困境凸显,进一步汇改是否会加剧其困境成为关注的焦点。本文基于汇改后的月度数据,采用GARCH模型分析各次汇改对汇率弹性的影响特征,构建向量误差修正模型测度和预测汇改对中小企业出口的影响。结果表明:汇改促使人民币每升值1%,其出口减少3.874%;汇率弹性增强1%,其出口减少0.034%。预测的中小企业出口总额较为平稳。进一步汇改以增强汇率弹性为核心不会对中小企业出口总量造成大的冲击。     

Estimating the Impact of Displays and Other Merchandising Support on Retail Brand Sales: Partial Pooling with Examples

With the advent of scanning data, methodological issues have arisen, in particular as they relate to the reliability of parameter estimates in regression models. This study deals with the reliability of the coefficients of promotion-type dummy variables (e.g., display, leaflet, bonus pack,). Due to a lack of passthrough of trade deals to the end consumer, those coefficients can be typically unidentified or unstable when estimated at the store level and even at the chain level. Assuming that the individual-level coefficients of the dummy variables are draws from a common but arbitrary distribution, the authors suggest to "pool" the data for those variables (partial "pooling") across stores and across chains. They show with three real-life examples the increased reliability (with a correct sign) of the "pooled" coefficients as compared with the store-level or chain-level individual coefficients.     

Conceptualizing smart shopping with a smartphone: implications of the use of mobile devices for shopping productivity and value

This conceptual paper addresses the implications of the use of mobile devices in an omni-channel retail environment for consumer shopping productivity and shopping value. We reconsider the existing literature on shopping productivity and adopt the perspective of bounded rationality paradigm rather than the classical assumption of customers’ perfect rationality. It enables us to consider both maximizers (those who seek the best outcome) and satisficers (those who stop their information search as soon as an appropriate option is available). After a thorough review of shopping productivity literature, we propose a conceptualization of shopping productivity including four dimensions: time/effort savings, right purchase, money savings, and hedonic benefits from shopping. We then present a conceptual framework relating use of mobile devices in an omni-channel retail environment to consumer shopping productivity and shopping value. The type of goods and consumer tendency to maximize are included in the framework as possible antecedents of the use of mobile devices in an omni-channel retail environment and moderators of the relation between consumer shopping productivity and shopping value.     

A model of buyer regret: Selected prepurchase and postpurchase antecedents with consequences for the brand and the channel

This research examines how two prepurchase stages of the buyer decision process–information search and alternative evaluation–and two postpurchase stages–evaluation of product and service attributes–influence buyer regret. The study extends prior consequences of regret to include purchase intentions toward both brand and the channel. Tested in a field sample of luxury automobile purchasers, results show that higher information search and alternative evaluation lead to more buyer regret; lower evaluations of service (but not product) attributes lead to more regret; and regret's consequences include reduced intentions to repurchase either the brand or from the dealership. Buyers who switch brands experience more regret than buyers who did not switch brands.