Productivity Performance of Export Market Entry and Exit: Evidence from Indian Firms

This paper contributes to the literature on exporting and firm productivity, focusing on export entry (efficiency), learning (post‐entry growth) and exit (inefficiency) by Indian firms. Drawing on 7000 firms during 1989–2009, our main objective is to examine the effect of exporting on firm productivity, correcting for selection bias using propensity‐score matching, which allows a “like‐for‐like” comparison between new exporters and nonexporters. Robust to different matching estimators, we find evidence of learning‐by‐exporting that new exporters acquire rapid productivity growth after entry, relative to nonexporters. We also find that (1) exporters are more productive than nonexporters; (2) productive firms tend to self‐select in entering the exporting market, and (3) least productive exporters are found to exit the export market as they experience adverse productivity effect prior to the year of exit. Our robust result on learning‐by‐exporting suggests that entering export market does appear to be a channel explaining the Indian recent growth miracle.     

Market Access,Export Performance and Survival: Evidence from Peruvian Firms

This paper explores the effect of market access on firms' export performance and their survival in foreign markets. The data used covers all Peruvian exporting firms between 2002 and 2008, a period during which Peru was active in joining the global economy. This is done using two indices, one that summarizes the tariffs faced by exporters, the other that measures the preferential margin at the bilateral level. Results show that more than market access conditions per se, it is market access conditions relative to those faced by competitors that significantly influences export performance and survival. About a fifth of the increase of exports directed to Mercosur countries is due to improvement in preference margins.     

Spillovers from Foreign Direct Investment in Spanish Manufacturing Firms

This paper examines the effect of participation by foreign capital and the spillovers from a foreign presence on the technical progress of Spanish manufacturing firms. The results show that foreign direct investment (FDI) creates positive spillover effects for local firms, and when the presence of foreign capital and the absorptive capacity of spillovers from FDI are large, more technical progress ensues. Also, local companies in capital‐ and research and development (R&D)‐intensive industries experience larger positive FDI spillovers. For these reasons, government policies should aim to attract FDI, especially in the aforementioned industries.     

Spillovers from Foreign Firms through Worker Mobility: An Empirical Investigation*

While there is a large empirical literature on productivity spillovers from multinationals, this literature treats the channels through which these spillover effects work as a black box. The new approach in this paper is to investigate whether spillovers occur via worker mobility. We use data on whether or not the owner of a domestic firm has previous experience in a multinational, and relate this information to firm‐level productivity. Our results suggest that firms which are run by owners who worked for multinationals in the same industry immediately prior to opening up their own firm are more productive than other domestic firms.     

不同出口密集度企业的出口工资溢价——来自中国的证据

在异质性企业理论框架下,运用中国工业企业数据库构建的平衡面板数据研究发现,我国出口工资溢价与不同出口密集度企业密切相关。进一步检验表明,一般出口企业持续出口的工资溢价与民营企业出口有关。因此,促进一般贸易企业出口,降低加工出口企业的比重,特别在一般出口企业中,提高民营企业的出口密集度,推动民营企业的持续出口,将改善我国的出口工资溢价。     

Risk Sharing and Institutional Quality: Evidence from OECD and Emerging Economies

In this paper, we investigate the impact of institutional quality on risk sharing across Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and emerging economies (EMEs). It has been found that the quality of institutions and risk sharing are significantly interrelated among OECD members (mostly through credit market channel), but not for the EMEs. Our results are consistent when we control for pre- and post-GFC periods. The reason why the impact of institutional quality on risk sharing is limited among EMEs might be due to the significant monetary injections from advanced economies in the form of remittances and financial aid which might understate other factors that influence risk sharing.     

Capital Flows, Capitalization, and Openness in Emerging East Asian Economies

We examine the international capital flows of seven East Asian emerging economies over the last decade and a half. We find that domestic capital market conditions appear to be the best predictors of the changes in the total capital flows of these countries. Overall, changes in capital market openness are less helpful in explaining the behavior of the recent capital flows of these economies. Finally, we find that, while US macroeconomic conditions are strong predictors of GDP growth in the region, US conditions matter very little for the region's capital flows.     

Foreign News and Spillovers in Emerging European Stock Markets

We analyze foreign news and spillovers in the emerging EU stock markets (the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland). We employ high‐frequency five‐minute intraday data on stock market index returns and four classes of EU and US macroeconomic announcements during 2004–07. We account for the difference of each announcement from its market expectation and we jointly model the volatility of the returns accounting for intraday movements and day‐of‐the‐week effects. Our findings show that intraday interactions on the new EU markets are strongly determined by mature stock markets as well as the macroeconomic news originating thereby. We show that strong contemporaneous links across markets are present even after controlling for macroeconomic announcements. Finally, in terms of specific announcements, we are able to show the exact sources of macro news spillovers from the developed foreign markets to the three new EU markets under research.     

Local Laws and Venture Capital Contracting in Transition Economies: Evidence from Poland

This study focuses on the legal structuring of venture capital deals in Poland. Three conclusions are derived. First, owing to significant imperfections in the Polish legal infrastructure, local venture capitalists need to consider how to structure their transactions. This represents a unique feature of venture capital investing in emerging markets. The study confirms the existence of three types of legal structures in venture capital investing (i.e. local deals, offshore deals and complex deals), with offshore deals being the predominant category. Second, local venture capitalists display different preferences for various deal structures based on venture capital firms' characteristics. Third, the placement of venture capitalists' rights varies across different legal documents, with the most pronounced difference being observed in local deals. The study is based on a survey of 64 venture capitalists.     

Multinational Enterprises,Absorptive Capacity and Export Spillovers: Evidence from Polish Firm‐level Data

An important benefit attributed to the activity of multinational enterprises (MNEs) in developing and transition countries is its effect on international market access. Through a variety of channels the presence of MNEs is expected to reduce the costs faced by indigenous firms in breaking into international markets and in turn boost their export prospects. In this paper we use an extensive Polish firm‐level dataset for the period 2000–2008 to verify whether MNEs have positively contributed to the export performance of indigenous firms. We track not only sectoral and geographical spillovers stemming from the activity of MNEs but also control for firm‐specific characteristics that affect indigenous firms' decisions to export including their absorptive capacity. Our empirical results support the existence of positive spillovers (related to MNE export activity) at the sectoral level but not at the regional level. Finally, we find that individual absorptive capacity determines the size of export spillovers.     

Outsourcing,Importing and Innovation: Evidence from Firm‐level Data for Emerging Economies

This paper investigates two sourcing strategies of firms, outsourcing and importing, and links these to innovation activities. The authors examine this empirically using firm‐level data for 28 emerging market economies and find robust evidence that outsourcing increases the likelihood to spend on R&D and via this channel raises innovation output, whereas importing increases innovation output, but not R&D. The results hold when implementing an instrumental variables approach. It is found that results crucially depend on the institutional environment in the economy, e.g. property rights and intellectual property rights protection. The results suggest that better institutions magnify the gains from importing, but not from outsourcing. EU countries also reap additional positive innovation effects from importing compared with non‐EU countries.     

Internet Technology and the Extensive Margin of Trade: Evidence from eBay in Emerging Economies

Online platforms such as eBay offer technologies that make it easier for firms to export. This paper dissects a new firm‐level dataset that covers sales made through eBay by sellers based in 21 emerging economies to provide a new lens through which to look at the effect of trade costs on the extensive margin of trade. Comparing eBay sellers with “offline” firm‐level data from the World Bank's Exporter Dynamics Database allows us to test whether the observed trade patterns on eBay fit with the trade‐liberalization predictions of heterogeneous‐firm models. We find that eBay firms export to more destinations, suggesting low destination‐specific fixed costs on eBay. We then show that the distribution of export destinations across eBay sellers is well approximated by a balls‐and‐bins model of frictionless trade, suggesting eBay indeed lowers fixed export costs. Finally, we compare the gravity of eBay with that of offline trade and find geographic distance, languages, and trade agreements to matter less for online trade.     

贸易成本、企业出口动态与出口增长的二元边际-基于中国出口企业微观数据:2000-2005

本文基于企业异质性贸易理论框架,利用中国海关数据从企业层面将中国出口增长分解为扩展边际(出口企业数量)与集约边际(单位企业的平均出口额),描述了中国企业出口动态和二元边际结构,并考察不同贸易成本的作用机制。结果发现,2000—2005年间尽管扩展边际的波动幅度远大于集约边际,中国出口的增长仍大部分是由持续出口企业的贸易额扩大实现的;各种因素对二元边际的作用机制和程度不尽相同,经济规模、距离和贸易成本的变动主要通过扩展边际影响贸易流量。     

Exchange Rates and Outward Foreign Direct Investment: US FDI in Emerging Economies

This paper investigates the effect of exchange rates on US foreign direct investment (FDI) flows to a sample of 16 emerging market countries using annual panel data for the period 1990–2002. Three separate exchange rate effects are considered: the value of the local currency (a cheaper currency attracts FDI); expected changes in the exchange rate (expected devaluation implies FDI is postponed); and exchange rate volatility (discourages FDI). The results reveal a negative relationship between FDI and more expensive local currency, the expectation of local currency depreciation, and volatile exchange rates. Stable exchange rate management can be important in attracting FDI.     

Foreign Capital and Urban Congestion in Emerging Markets

Traditional literature emphasizes the role of foreign capital, especially foreign direct investment (FDI) in explaining the high growth rates that many emerging economies have enjoyed during 1990s and 2000s. The present paper accepts this conventional wisdom but argues that the FDI has also created problems of urban sprawl and congestion that would not be so intense if economic development had primarily come from domestic sources. This is because the FDI is typically concentrated in urban areas that abound in manufacturing and it neglects the rural areas where agriculture predominates. The paper suggests that a small tax on foreign capital tends to mitigate the side effects of foreign investment.     

Ownership Structure and Firm Performance: Evidence from Vietnamese Listed Firms

We examine the effect of ownership structure on firm performance, for firms listed on Vietnamese stock exchanges, using 2744 firm‐year observations over the period from 2007 to 2012. We find a non‐linear relationship between ownership structure and firm performance. State ownership has a convex relationship with firm performance. This paper finds that firm performance increases beyond 28.67 percent level of state ownership. Foreign ownership has a concave relationship with firm performance. We find that firm performance increases with an increase of foreign ownership up to a level of 43 percent and then decreases. Policy makers should encourage foreign ownership and widely dispersed state ownership in firms, which can help improve firm performance.     

Corporation Diversification and Firm Performance: Evidence from Vietnamese Listed Firms

We examine the effect of corporate diversification on the performance of firms listed on the Vietnamese stock exchanges, using 2744 firm year observations over the period from 2007 to 2012. We find that corporate diversification has a negative impact on firm performance. Our results are robust to various econometric estimation techniques including fixed effect, instrumental fixed effect, Heckman selection model and system generalised method of moments. In the Vietnamese context, the lack of an efficient corporate governance system may encourage firms to follow corporate diversification strategies, thus impairing their performance.     

Does Investing in Technology Affect Exports? Evidence from Indian Firms

The authors use firm-level data from Indian manufacturing industries to explore the determinants of exports, focusing on the role played by technology. The empirical analysis, which distinguishes between a firm's decision to export and the volume of its exports conditional on its having decided to export, reveals that investments in technology via R&D and technology transfer agreements can facilitate the entry of Indian firms into export markets. However, their influence on the volume of exports is fairly limited. Factors with a more broad-based influence on both export participation and volumes include labor intensity and, especially, firm size.