Imported Inputs and Productivity

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Halpern, Laszlo; Koren, Miklos; Szeidl, Adam
• 署名单位: Hungarian Academy of Sciences; HUN-REN; HUN-REN Centre for Economic & Regional Studies; Institute of Economics - HAS; Center for Economic & Policy Research (CEPR); Central European University
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.20150443
• 发表日期: 2015
• 页码: 3660-3703
• 关键词: INTERNATIONAL-TRADE; intermediate inputs; economic-development; FIRMS; LIBERALIZATION; Heterogeneity; DYNAMICS; GROWTH; COSTS

摘要

We estimate a model of importers in Hungarian microdata and conduct counterfactual analysis to investigate the effect of imported inputs on productivity. We find that importing all input varieties would increase a firm's revenue productivity by 22 percent, about one-half of which is due to imperfect substitution between foreign and domestic inputs. Foreign firms use imports more effectively and pay lower fixed import costs. We attribute one-quarter of Hungarian productivity growth during the 1993-2002 period to imported inputs. Simulations show that the productivity gain from a tariff cut is larger when the economy has many importers and many foreign firms.