Multinational price premium

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Ge, Ying; Lai, Huiwen; Zhu, Susan Chun
• 署名单位: University of International Business & Economics; Hong Kong Polytechnic University; Michigan State University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-3878
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2015.02.002
• 发表日期: 2015
• 页码: 181-199
• 关键词: Export prices; multinational firms; Technology transfer; product quality

摘要

By exploring a rich data set that links international trade transactions to panel data of manufacturing firms from China during 2000-2006, we reveal new patterns of export prices across firms. We find that foreign firms charge about 28% higher prices than Chinese exporters after controls for firm productivity and product-destination-year fixed effects. We provide evidence that the multinational price premium is significantly correlated with the knowledge-based intangible assets within multinationals. The multinational price premium is substantially higher for firms with headquarters in more innovative countries and for firms that have technicians and managers sent from their parent companies. The price premium is even higher for majority- or wholly owned affiliates than for minority-owned affiliates. Our results imply that in addition to generating efficiency gains, multinationals can also enhance the capability of foreign affiliates to produce quality. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.