ESTIMATING CROSS-COUNTRY DIFFERENCES IN PRODUCT QUALITY

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Hallak, Juan Carlos; Schott, Peter K.
• 署名单位: Universidad Mayor de San Andres; National Bureau of Economic Research; Yale University
• 刊物名称: QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0033-5533
• DOI: 10.1093/qje/qjq003
• 发表日期: 2011
• 页码: 417-474
• 关键词: trade; export; price

摘要

We develop a method for decomposing countries' observed export prices into quality versus quality-adjusted components using information contained in trade balances. Holding observed export prices constant, countries with trade surpluses are inferred to offer higher quality than countries running trade deficits. We account for variation in trade balances induced by horizontal and vertical differentiation, and we estimate the evolution of manufacturing quality for top exporters from 1989 to 2003. We find that observed unit value ratios can be a poor approximation for relative quality differences, countries' quality is converging more rapidly than their income, and countries appear to vary in terms of displaying high-quality versus low-price growth strategies. JEL Codes: F1, F2, F4.