Export variety and country productivity: Estimating the monopolistic competition model with endogenous productivity

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Feenstra, Robert; Kee, Hiau Looi
• 署名单位: University of California System; University of California Davis; National Bureau of Economic Research; The World Bank
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-1996
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jinteco.2006.11.006
• 发表日期: 2008
• 页码: 500-518
• 关键词: productivity; export variety; translog; monopolistic competition

摘要

This paper provides evidence on the monopolistic competition model with heterogeneous firms and endogenous productivity. We show that this model has a well-defined GDP function where relative export variety enters positively, and estimate this function over 48 countries from 1980 to 2000. Average export variety to the United States increases by 3.3% per year, so it nearly doubles over these two decades. The total increase in export variety is associated with a 3.3% average productivity improvement for exporters over the two decades. Overall, the model can explain 31% of the within-country variation in productivity (or 52% for the OECD countries), but only a very small fraction of the between-country variation in productivity. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.