International trade and the allocation of capital within firms☆

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Doerr, S.; Marin, D.; Suverato, D.; Verdier, T.
• 署名单位: Bank for International Settlements (BIS); Centre for Economic Policy Research - UK; Technical University of Munich; Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology Domain; ETH Zurich; Paris School of Economics; Institut Polytechnique de Paris; Ecole des Ponts ParisTech; Pontificia Universidade Catolica do Rio de Janeiro
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-1996
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jinteco.2024.104023
• 发表日期: 2025
• 关键词: Multi-product firms; Trade and organization; internal capital markets; Conglomerate discount; China shock

摘要

This paper introduces an internal capital market into a two-factor model of multi-segment firms. It features empire building by managers and informational frictions within the organization. The headquarters knows less about a segment's true cost than its divisional managers do, so managers can over-report their costs and receive more capital than optimal. Our novel theory, which enables us to endogenize the cost structure of multi-segment firms, shows that international trade imposes discipline on divisional managers and improves the capital allocation between divisions, thereby lowering the conglomerate discount. The theory can explain why exporters exhibit a lower conglomerate discount than non-exporters. We exploit the China shock as an exogenous change to competition to confirm the model's predictions with data on US companies.