Perspectives on exporting: Productivity raiser, antidumping victim, and crisis insurance.

摘要

This thesis comprises three studies on exporting from different perspectives. By using panel datasets, the three studies in this dissertation explore how and why exporting raises industry productivity, is affected by antidumping measures, and buffers firms against a financial crisis. In Chapter 1, we introduce the thesis by examining the economic importance of exporting. We review the literature on export-led growth and highlight the role of exports in trade liberalization. In Chapter 2, we use industry-level cross-country OECD data from 1970 to 2002 to identify the industries in which export growth raises productivity growth. We also check, within these industries, if exporting affects firm turnover as this may be a channel through which the effects of exporting are passed through to industry productivity according to recent heterogeneous-firm trade models. Our results show that export-induced productivity growth occurs in only certain industries. Moreover, these industries are the fastest growing industries in terms of productivity. We also find that, for these particular industries as a group, entry rates are positively related to export growth. In Chapter 3, we investigate whether exporters from countries with lower per-capita income are disproportionately affected by the negative impact of antidumping proceedings and measures. The empirical focus is on exports to the EU in the period 1988-2002. We provide several arguments for why exports from poorer countries may be more gravely affected by antidumping. However, the results from our study do not provide robust evidence that targeted exporters from lower per-capita income countries reduce their exports to the EU disproportionately compared to their counterparts from higher per-capita income countries. In Chapter 4, we study if and how foreign links help firms withstand financial difficulties induced by a major financial crisis. Using a dataset on East Asian firms for the period 1996-1998, we address whether exporting and/or having foreign direct investment (FDI) had an effect on firm performance and liquidity during the Asian financial crisis. We find that exporters performed better than local non-exporting firms during the crisis in terms of sales, profits, and operating capacity. We also find that firms with FDI grew in terms of assets during the crisis. We do not find that exporting or having FDI improved firm liquidity during the crisis. Lastly, in Chapter 5, we synthesize the results of our three studies and propose future avenues for research.