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.

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。     

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.     

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.     

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.     

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.