We analyze the effect of rising Chinese import competition between 1990 and 2007 on US local labor markets, exploiting cross-market variation in import exposure stemming from initial diffe...

/pdf/the-china-syndrome-local-labor-market-effects-of-import-m7cu7qezh2.pdf

The China Syndrome: Local Labor Market Effects of Import Competition in the United States

Economists have shown that large and persistent differences in productivity levels across businesses are ubiquitous. This finding has shaped research agendas in a number of fields, including (but not limited to) macroeconomics, industrial organization, labor, and trade. This paper surveys and evaluates recent empirical work addressing the question of why businesses differ in their measured productivity levels. The causes are manifold, and differ depending on the particular setting. They include elements sourced in production practices -- and therefore over which producers have some direct control, at least in theory -- as well as from producers' external operating environments. After evaluating the current state of knowledge, I lay out what I see are the major questions that research in the area should address going forward. (JEL D24, G31, L11, M10, O30, O47)

/pdf/what-determines-productivity-2hh0dpac5x.pdf

What Determines Productivity

Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers

This article provides guidance to prudent use of the World Input–Output Database (WIOD) in analyses of international trade. The WIOD contains annual time-series of world input–output tables and factor requirements covering the period from 1995 to 2011. Underlying concepts, construction methods and data sources are introduced, pointing out particular strengths and weaknesses. We illustrate its usefulness by analyzing the geographical and factorial distribution of value added in global automotive production and show increasing fragmentation, both within and across regions. Possible improvements and extensions to the data are discussed.

/pdf/an-illustrated-user-guide-to-the-world-input-output-database-2n8pok84wu.pdf

An Illustrated User Guide to the World Input-Output Database : the Case of Global Automotive Production

Despite the fact that importing and exporting are extremely rare firm activities, economists generally devote little attention to the role of firms when discussing international trade. This paper summarizes key differences between trading and non-trading firms, demonstrates how these differences present a challenge to standard trade models and shows how recent "heterogeneous-firm" models of international trade address these challenges. We then make use of transaction-level U.S. trade data to introduce a number of new stylized facts about firms and trade. These facts reveal that the extensive margins of trade -- that is, the number of products firms trade as well as the number of countries with which they trade -- are central to understanding the well-known role of distance in dampening aggregate trade flows.

/pdf/firms-in-international-trade-1ryz0dorem.pdf

Firms in International Trade

https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w15152/w15152.pdf

Creative Accounting or Creative Destruction? Firm-level Productivity Growth in Chinese Manufacturing

Proponents of trade liberalization argue that it will force firms to produce closer to the production possibility frontier and that the frontier will move out faster. In particular, plants that export will achieve a higher productivity level. However intuitive the argument, empirical evidence is meager. This hypothesis is examined by calculating the effect of export status on productivity for a panel of manufacturing plants in nine African countries. The results indicate that exporters in these countries are more productive, replicating a similar finding for developed countries. More importantly, exporters increase their productivity advantage after entry into the export market. While the first finding can be explained by selection---only the most productive firms engage in exporting---the latter cannot. The results are robust when unobserved productivity differences and self-selection into the export market are controlled for using different econometric methods. Scale economies are shown to be an important channel for the productivity advance. Credit constraints and contract enforcement problems prevent plants that only produce for the domestic market to fully exploit scale economies.

Exporting Raises Productivity in Sub-Saharan African Manufacturing Plants

https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w10020/w10020.pdf

Exporting raises productivity in sub-Saharan African manufacturing firms

In this article, we apply global value chain (GVC) analysis to recent trends in the global automotive industry, with special attention paid to the case of North America. We use the three main elements of the GVC framework—firm-level chain governance, power and institutions—to highlight some of the defining characteristics of this important industry. First, national political institutions create pressure for local content, which drives production close to end markets, where it tends to be organized nationally or regionally. Second, in terms of GVC governance, rising product complexity combined with low codifiability and a paucity of industry-level standards has driven buyer–supplier linkages toward the relational form, a governance mode that is more compatible with Japanese than American supplier relations. The outsourcing boom of the 1990s exacerbated this situation. As work shifted to the supply base, lead firms and suppliers were forced to develop relational linkages to support the exchange of complex uncodified information and tacit knowledge. Finally, the small number of hugely powerful lead firms that drive the automotive industry helps to explain why it has been so difficult to develop and set the industry-level standards that could underpin a more loosely articulated spatial architecture. This case study underlines the need for an open, scalable approach to the study of global industries.

/pdf/value-chains-networks-and-clusters-reframing-the-global-12s1nqy3oz.pdf

Value chains, networks and clusters: reframing the global automotive industry

王璐航系厦门大学经济学科2012年新引进的助理教授，博士毕业于加拿大多伦多大学经济系，主要研究兴趣为中国经济、国际贸易与应用微观经济学。其论文曾在比较经济学国际重要期刊Journal of Comparative Economics上发表。本次王璐航发表在《美国经济评论》的论文利用中国加入WTO带来的关税变化研究中国最终产品以及中间投入品的市场开放对于制造业绩效的影响。研究发现最终产品关税的降低一方面压缩了大企业的价格加成，另一方面推动了行业生产效率的提高。与其他国家的经验不同，中国行业效率提升的主要原因是竞争机制的强化进而筛选出了更好的新企业进入。伴随着中间品关税的降低，中国的中间品进口增长有限，但是中间品价格大幅下降。得益于由此带来的成本降低，企业提高了加成率。中间品市场的变化也对新进入企业的生产效率有正的贡献。该文也是厦大经济学科“海归”教师在国际顶级期刊发表研究中国经济问题的众多学术论文的一个典型代表。

/pdf/wto-accession-and-performance-of-chinese-manufacturing-firms-1a92q8qoha.pdf

Johannes Van Biesebroeck

Papers

Creative Accounting or Creative Destruction? Firm-level Productivity Growth in Chinese Manufacturing

Exporting Raises Productivity in Sub-Saharan African Manufacturing Plants

Exporting raises productivity in sub-Saharan African manufacturing firms

Value chains, networks and clusters: reframing the global automotive industry

WTO Accession and Performance of Chinese Manufacturing Firms