Can production subsidies explain China's export performance? Evidence from firm-level data

This paper analyses the relationship between production subsidies and firms’ export performance using a very comprehensive and recent firm-level database and controlling for the endogeneity of subsidies. It documents robust evidence that production subsidies stimulate export activity at the intensive margin, although this effect is conditional on firm characteristics. In particular, the positive relationship between subsidies and the intensive margin of exports is strongest among profit-making firms, firms in capital-intensive industries, and those located in non-coastal regions. Compared to firm characteristics, the extent of heterogeneity across ownership structure (SOEs, collectives, and privately owned firms) proves to be relatively less important.

Self-selection into export markets by business services firms:evidence from France, Germany and the United Kingdom

This study investigates business services firms that (start to) export, comparing exporters to firms that serve the national market only. We estimate identically specified empirical models using comparable enterprise data from France, Germany, and the UK. Our findings show that exporters are on average more productive and pay higher wages in all three countries. However, results for profitability differ across borders, where profitability of exporters is significantly smaller in Germany, significantly larger in France, and does not differ significantly in the UK. The results for wages and productivity hold in the years before firms start exporting, which indicates self-selection into exporting of more productive services firms that pay higher wages. The surprising finding of self-selection of less profitable German services firms into exporting does not show up among firms from France and the UK. In all three countries we do not find evidence for positive effects of exporting on firm performance. © 2012 Elsevier B.V.

Export propensity, export intensity and firm performance:the role of the entrepreneurial founding team

We investigate how the characteristics and experience of the entrepreneurial founding team (EFT) affect the export orientation and subsequent performance of the businesses they establish, while allowing for the mutually reinforcing relationship between exporting and productivity. Using a sample of UK technology-based firms, we hypothesise and confirm that the set of EFT human capital needed for entering export markets is different from that required for succeeding in export markets. Commercial and managerial experience helps firms become exporters, but once over the exporting hurdle it is education, both general and specific, that has a substantially positive effect. The overall pattern of human capital effects on productivity is similar to those for export propensity. We also find evidence that productive firms are more likely both to enter export markets and to be export intensive, and that exporting boosts subsequent firm productivity.

The innovation value chain and export performance:a study of Taiwanese manufacturing industries

This thesis involves the secondary data of 1806 innovative manufacturing firms derived from the database of 2nd Taiwanese Innovation Survey. Three topics are researched. The first topic investigates the innovation value chain (IVC) in Taiwanese manufacturing firms. Previous IVC studies are all done in developed countries such as UK, Ireland, Northern Ireland and Switzerland, and it leaves the gap of those non-developed countries. The result shows the overall knowledge sourcing pattern of Taiwanese manufacturing firms presenting a complementary relationship which is consistent to the previous IVC studies. The main innovation input is still derived from internal R&D which suggests more utilisation of external knowledge may boost innovation outcome. Product innovation does enhance firm growth while process innovation reduces a firm’s productivity. The second topic uses the lens of IVC to investigate the difference of the innovation process from knowledge linkages to value added between high-tech and low- tech sectors. The findings indicate (1) there are significant differences in the IVC between high- and low-tech sectors, however these are defined; (2) how you define ‘sector’ matters i.e. the nature of the high-tech and low-tech differences varies depending on whether the technology definition is carried out at the industry or firm level; and (3) the high uncertainty of innovation cause the difficulty to predict firm performance especially for those firms with high intensity of innovation. The third topic investigates the innovation-exporting relationship and explores the determinants of export performance. Product innovation enhances export performance once a firm enters international markets while process innovation affects negatively on a firm’s likelihood of being an exporter. Furthermore, IP protection is found to affect directly export performance positively.

Symbolic use of export information:a multidimensional conceptualisation, its' effect on performance and key antecedents

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Pricing-to-market and the volatility of UK export prices

This empirical study examines the Pricing-To-Market (PTM) behaviour of 20 UK export sectors. Using both Exponential General Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity (EGARCH) and Threshold GARCH (TGARCH) estimation methods, we find evidence of PTM that is accompanied by strong conditional volatility and weak asymmetry effects. The PTM estimates suggest that when the currency of exporters appreciates in the current period, exporters pass-on between 31% and 94% of the Foreign Exchange (FX) rate increase to importers. However, both export price changes and producers' prices are sluggish, perhaps being driven by coordination failure and menu driven costs, amongst others. Furthermore, export prices contain strong time varying effects which impact on PTM strategy. Exporters do not typically appear to put much more weight on negative news of (say) an FX rate appreciation compared to positive news of an FX rate depreciation. Much depends on the export sector. © 2010 Taylor & Francis.

Investment liberalisation, technology take-off and export markets entry:does foreign ownership structure matter?

Before and after its accession to the WTO in 2001, China has undergone a far-reaching investment liberalisation. As part of this, existing restrictions on foreign ownership structure and mandatory export and technology transfer requirements imposed on foreign firms have been lifted in a number of industries. Against this background we identify the causal effects of foreign acquisitions on export market entry and technology take-off and evaluate whether the level of foreign ownership plays a role in stimulating these changes. Using doubly robust propensity score reweighted bivariate probit regressions to control for the selection bias associated with firm level foreign acquisition incidences, we uncover strong but heterogeneous positive effects on export activity for all types of foreign ownership structure. We also find that minority foreign owned acquisition targets experience higher likelihood of R&D, providing evidence that joint ventures can contribute positively to China's "science and technology take-off".

Explaining intermittent exporting:exit and conditional re-entry in export markets

Intermittent exporting is something of a puzzle. In theory, exporting represents a major commitment, and is often the starting point for further internationalisation. However, intermittent exporters exit and subsequently re-enter exporting, sometimes frequently. We develop a conceptual model to explain how firm characteristics and market conditions interact to affect the decision to exit and re-enter exporting, and model this process using an extensive dataset of French manufacturing firms from 1997 to 2007. As anticipated, smaller and less productive firms are more likely to exit exporting, and react more strongly to changes in both domestic and foreign markets than larger firms. Exit and re-entry are closely linked. Firms with a low exit probability also have a high likelihood of re-entry, and vice versa. However, the way in which firms react to market conditions at the time of exit matters greatly in determining the likelihood of re-entry: thus re-entry depends crucially on the strategic rationale for exit. Our analysis helps explain the opportunistic and intermittent exporting of (mainly) small firms, the demand conditions under which intermittent exporting is most likely to occur, and the firm attributes most likely to give rise to such behavior.