Trade liberalization, input intermediaries and firm productivity: Evidence from China

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Defever, Fabrice; Imbruno, Michele; Kneller, Richard
• 署名单位: City St Georges, University of London; University of London; London School Economics & Political Science; Sapienza University Rome; University of Nottingham
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-1996
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jinteco.2020.103329
• 发表日期: 2020
• 关键词: Firm heterogeneity; trade liberalization; intermediate inputs; PRODUCTIVITY; Intermediaries; CHINA

摘要

We investigate theoretically and empirically the role of wholesalers in mediating the productivity effects of trade liberalization. Intermediaries provide indirect access to foreign produced inputs. The productivity effects of input tariff cuts on firms that do not directly import therefore depends on the extent that wholesalers are a feature of input supply within an industry. Using firm level data from China, we document that wholesalers play no such role for direct importers. However, other firms experience productivity gains from reducing input tariffs if trade intermediation of foreign inputs within their sector is high. They suffer efficiency losses otherwise. Crown Copyright (C) 2020 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.