Credit rationing and firm exports: Microeconomic evidence from small and medium‐sized enterprises in China

This paper examines the effect of credit rationing on export performance by small and medium‐sized firms in China. We use a detailed firm‐level data provided by the Small and Medium‐sized Enterprises Dynamic Survey (SMEDS) during 2015–16 to conduct this analysis. The SMEDS provides firm‐specific measures of credit rationing based directly on firm‐level responses to the survey rather than indirect ones, based on firm‐level financial statements. We find that, at the extensive margin, weak and strong credit rationing reduces export probability of small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) by 15.1% and 39.6%, respectively. At the intensive margin, they decrease SMEs' export values by more than 20.0% and over 28.8%, respectively. Different than existing literature, we construct valid firm‐level instruments, firm‐level housing stock, for credit rationing rather than using province‐level instruments. We also employ county‐industry‐level instruments and obtain consistent estimates. In addition, credit rationing exhibits heterogeneous impacts on firms with different liquidity ratios, product portfolios, external collateral and capital utilisation rates.     

US agricultural exports and labor market adjustments

This study empirically investigates the impact of US agricultural exports on farm and nonfarm employment and tests how individuals adjust to agricultural export shocks. Based on the data from 1991 to 2017 and a Bartik-style instrument that exploits cross-regional variation in agricultural export exposure stemming from initial differences in agricultural specialization and temporal variation in predicted US exports from exogenous tariff reductions, we find that a 1% increase in agricultural exports increases farm employment by 0.302% and has no statistically significant impact on nonfarm employment. The individual-level analysis shows that, in response to positive agricultural export demand shocks, natives with a college degree are more likely to become self-employed and start farm activities and while non-natives without a college degree are more likely to become hired farmworkers. A back-of-the-envelope calculation based on the estimates of agricultural trade elasticities of employment shows that on balance, job gains due to US agricultural exports are slightly larger than job loss due to agricultural imports, resulting in a net gain of around 0.24 million farm jobs over 1991–2017.     

The promotion of local agro-food products through tourism: a segmentation analysis

In order to analyse the role of inbound tourism in the promotion of future exports of agro-food products, this paper presents a segmentation study of the international tourism market of Portugal, based on visitors’ intentions to consume, and likelihood to recommend to friends and relatives, specific local products when they return to their home country. A questionnaire-based survey was conducted on a sample of inbound visitors and the responses were subjected to a hierarchical cluster analysis. From this analysis, three clusters were established and several statistical differences among them were identified concerning behavioural intentions regarding local food products, socio-demographic profile, consumption and purchase behaviour during and after the trip. The findings obtained have both theoretical and practical implications. On the one hand, this study analyses the importance of inbound tourism in the promotion of Portuguese exports of local food, an issue not previously explored. Additionally, this study applies as its basis of segmentation, variables that have so far been neglected in the literature: the visitors’ intentions to consume and to recommend to friends and relatives. On the other hand, the findings provide relevant inputs for the development of better marketing strategies to promote the local products to various target groups.     

Exchange rate fluctuations and quality composition of exports: Evidence from Swiss product-level data

This paper studies the relationship between exchange rate movements and the average export quality using disaggregated Swiss product-level data between 1996 and 2015. We find evidence at different levels of aggregation that the average export quality increases in response to a currency appreciation through compositional effects: currency appreciations shift market shares towards goods that are more expensive and of higher quality. This exchange rate effect on quality is more pronounced for differentiated goods and in sectors with a greater scope for quality differentiation. From a policy perspective, this reallocation effect points to the importance of facilitating structural changes in the export composition to increase the resilience of the export sector to exchange rate shocks. Our results also suggest a positive relationship between the average export quality and aggregate export sales. From a methodological point of view, the findings imply that exchange rate pass-through estimations without quality controls tend to be biased regardless of aggregation level or type of data.     

Economic Benefits and Environmental Costs of China's Exports: A Comparison with the USA Based on Network Analysis

This paper decomposes economic benefits (value‐added) and environmental costs (CO₂) of exports according to their sources, and maps the global value network (GVN) and the global emissions network (GEN) for China's exports during 1995–2009 from national, sectoral and national–sectoral perspectives. A comparison is conducted between China and the USA. National GVN and GEN show that shares of value‐added and CO₂ emissions from China in its GVN and GEN both decreased first then increased after 2006, while shares from the USA in its GVN and GEN generally decreased. Sectoral GVN and GEN show that among China's exports, “electrical and optical equipment” and “electricity, gas and water supply” were, respectively, the sectors that obtained the most value‐added and emitted the most CO₂. National–sectoral GVN and GEN for China exhibited reciprocal and disassortative patterns, and in‐strengths and out‐strengths of GVN and GEN for China's exports were mainly captured by several domestic country–sector pairs.     

Exports and governance: Is the Middle East and North Africa region different?

This paper aims to analyse whether better governance rewards economic performance and facilitates the integration of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region into the world economy. In comparison with other regions in the world economy, MENA countries suffer from important institutional deficiencies, which generate insecurity and difficult international transactions. Despite this fact, the relationship between trade and institutional quality in MENA countries remains unexplored. A gravity model of trade augmented with governance indicators is estimated for the exports of 19 MENA countries, their 189 trading partners and for all exporters in the period from 1996 to 2013. The main results indicate that improvements in five of the six governance indicators increase exports from MENA countries, whereas better governance in destination countries does not affect MENA exports. Instead, each of the six governance indicators used has a positive effect on bilateral trade for the entire sample of exporters (189). Moreover, the effect of country‐pair similarity in governance indicators suggests that a similar level of regulatory quality and rule of law in exporting and importing countries increases exports from MENA countries. Similarities in voice and accountability also foster exports for the average exporter, but not for MENA exporters.     

The transformation of national patents for high-technology exports: Moderating effects of national cultures

National culture as an informal institution influences the national absorptive capacity (NAC) measured in patents per capita in the upstream and entrepreneurial activity in the downstream. Does national culture moderate the link between NAC and high-technology exports? We explored this question in a comprehensive study design. Based on a panel of 101 countries over 21 years, first, we assessed the direct effect of NAC on high-technology exports in the baseline hypothesis. Then, we analysed the moderating role of national culture between the country’s NAC and high-technology exports. The results show several insights from the comparison between the literature and our evidence. (i) We proposed that power distance negatively moderates patent and high-tech exports; the results show a positive correlation of the interaction. (ii) We proposed that individualist culture positively moderates patent and high-technology exports; the results show a positive correlation of the interaction. (iii) We proposed that high masculinity has no moderating effects; the results show a positive interaction effect. (iv) We proposed that uncertainty avoidance negatively moderates the link between NAC and high-technology exports; the results show negative and significant moderation without the introduction of long-term orientation; however, it is non-significant after the introduction of long-term orientation. Last, (v) we proposed that long-term orientation positively moderates the link between NAC and high-technology exports; the results are positive and significant without uncertainty avoidance, and they are non-significant with uncertainty avoidance in the analysis. Uncertainty avoidance and long-term orientation neutralise each other’s effects. Based on these insights, we contribute to the literature in three ways. First, we address the issue of high-technology exports in international business at the national level and link it to the vertical transformation of national science in patents per capita. Second, we contribute to the institutional theory encompassing informal norms (culture) and formal rules (policy) in the flow of NAC to commercial performance. Third, we make several policy-related suggestions.     

Trade (exports) as an opportunity for Bangladesh: A VECM analysis

ABSTRACT

This article examines the effects of trade (exports) on the economic growth of Bangladesh from 1986 to 2016, using the application of a Johansen cointegration and vector error correction model. The empirical findings exhibit that trade (exports) has a unique long-run equilibrium relationship with the economic growth of Bangladesh. The short-run results also display a robust causality between variables. This study suggests that exports play a major role in the growth of Bangladesh. Policymakers should promote the export of goods and services, especially manufactured goods, in the long term, in order to possibly reduce the trade deficit and rapidly stimulate the growth of Bangladesh.     

The Paradoxes of Thailand's Pre-crisis Export Performance

Abstract

Starting from the observation that Thailand succeeded in developing its exports in a spectacular way in the decades preceding the 1997 financial crisis, the author points to a number of apparent paradoxes that become apparent when looking at Thai trade policies in detail. For example, Thai trade policy was characterized by an anti-export bias, the causal effect of inward foreign direct investment (FDI) on exports could not clearly be demonstrated, and the effects of discriminatory tariff reductions were apparently very poor. Elements of an explanation are suggested.     

Exports,productivity and innovation: new firm level empirical evidence

This article examines the determinants of Portuguese exports, applying data from 277 manufacturing firms for the period 2006–2010. In 2010, these firms accounted for about 47% of total Portugal’s exports. Both the static and dynamic results of the estimated models confirm the positive influence of productivity on variations in exports. The dynamic estimations also suggest that exports in the previous period hold a positive effect on contemporaneous exports, confirming the Roberts and Tybout (1997) sunk cost hypothesis for exports. In the dynamic analysis, the labour costs and the size of the firm do not have a statistically significant effect on Portuguese exports with the findings also pointing to increased expenditure on research and development (R&D) generating no statistically significant effect on exports. The lagged R&D expenditure was also insignificant in explaining the change of Portuguese exports. Thus, these results suggest that applying a product or process innovation measure returns better results than indirect measures such as R&D expenditure.