Estimating export-productivity cutoff contours with profit data: A novel threshold estimation approach

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Egger, Peter H.; Wang, Yulong
• 署名单位: Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology Domain; ETH Zurich; Leibniz Association; Ifo Institut
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-1996
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jinteco.2026.104254
• 发表日期: 2026
• 关键词: credit constraints; TRADE; MARKET; FIRMS; performance; IMPACT; COSTS; CHINA; long

摘要

This paper develops a novel method to estimate firm-specific market-entry thresholds in international economics, allowing fixed costs to vary across firms alongside productivity. Our framework models market entry as an interaction between productivity and observable fixed-cost measures, extending traditional single-threshold models to ones with set-valued thresholds. Applying this approach to Chinese firm data, we estimate export-market entry thresholds as functions of domestic sales and surrogate variables for fixed costs. The results reveal substantial heterogeneity and threshold contours, challenging conventional single-threshold-point assumptions. These findings offer new insights into firm behavior and provide a foundation for further theoretical and empirical advancements in trade research.