Product and process productivity: Implications for quality choice and conditional exporter premia

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Hallak, Juan Carlos; Sivadasan, Jagadeesh
• 署名单位: Universidad de San Andres Argentina; Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas (CONICET); University of Michigan System; University of Michigan
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-1996
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jinteco.2013.05.001
• 发表日期: 2013
• 页码: 53-67
• 关键词: Product productivity; Process productivity; QUALITY; fixed costs; exports; Conditional exporter premia

摘要

We develop a model of international trade with two dimensions of firm heterogeneity. The first dimension is process productivity, which is how we denote the standard concept of productivity as modeled in the literature. The second one is product productivity, defined as firms' ability to develop high-quality products spending small fixed outlays. The distinction between these two sources of productivity, together with the assumption that iceberg trade costs decrease with quality, delivers various conditional exporter premia as theoretical predictions. Conditional on size, exporters sell higher quality products, charge higher prices, pay higher input prices and higher wages, and use capital more intensively. Some of these predictions had already been documented in the empirical literature but lacked a theoretical framework for properly interpreting them. We conduct systematic tests of these predictions using manufacturing establishment data for India, the U.S., Chile, and Colombia, and find strong support for the model. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.