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on Business Economics |
| By: | Joachim Wagner (Leuphana University Lueneburg, Germany) |
| Abstract: | This study replicates estimation results from Jennifer Abel-Koch, Who Uses Intermediaries in International trade? Evidence from Firm-level Survey Data, published in The World Economy (2013). In this paper she uses firm-level data from Turkey. The pure replication performed here that is based on a sample that differs only arginally from the sample used in the original study is successful. In addition to the pure replication I use firm-level data for Egypt from a highly similar survey. The most important result found by Abel-Koch for Turkey – a negative relationship between firm size and the intensity of use of intermediaries in exports – is found for Egypt, too. Results for the link between other firm characteristics and indirect exports via intermediaries, however, often turn out to be different. |
| Keywords: | Replication study, indirect exports, Turkey, Egypt |
| JEL: | F14 |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lue:wpaper:370&r=bec |
| By: | Hellwig, Michael; Hüschelrath, Kai |
| Abstract: | We use a dataset of 615 firms which participated in 114 illegal cartels - convicted by the European Commission between 1999 and 2016 - to investigate the determinants of the duration of a firm's participation in a cartel. Applying a Weibull proportional hazard model with a particular focus on the impact of internal and external time-varying determinants, we find that firms show an increased probability to leave a cartel if prior exits occurred as well as in periods of high demand growth. However, we find a reduced exit probability in situations of prior entries to the cartel or in periods of high interest rates. Additional estimations on the cartel level further suggest that firm exits increase the probability of a cartel breakdown substantially. |
| Keywords: | Survival Analysis,Cartels,Duration,European Union |
| JEL: | C41 K21 L41 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:17002&r=bec |
| By: | Daniele Moschella; Federico Tamagni; Xiaodan Yu |
| Abstract: | This article investigates the characteristics of high-growth (HG) firms in Chinese manufacturing, and further explores the effects of firm characteristics on persistence of high-growth. We employ a multidimensional definition of HG firms that simultaneously accounts for growth of sales and employment. Exploiting a representative panel covering the period of the Chinaùs miracle, we find that HG firms outperform other firms, showing higher productivity, higher profitability, larger investment intensity, higher sales from product innovation, lower interest expenses and lower leverage. HG firms are also relatively young, larger in size, more often exporters and more concentrated in non-State-controlled companies. However, regression analysis suggests that none of the indicators of structural characteristics and performance considered above displays any statistical association with the ability to persistently replicate high-growth over time. The results speak against the long-run effectiveness of policies supporting the creation and backing of high-growth firms. |
| Keywords: | Entrepreneurship, Firm growth, High-growth firms, Persistent high-growth firms |
| Date: | 2017–09–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ssa:lemwps:2017/03&r=bec |
| By: | Cai, Jing; Szeidl, Adam |
| Abstract: | We organized business associations for the owner-managers of randomly selected young Chinese firms to study the effect of business networks on firm performance. We randomized 2,800 firms into small groups whose managers held monthly meetings for one year, and into a "no-meetings" control group. We find that: (1) The meetings increased firm revenue by 8.1 percent, and also significantly increased profit, factors, inputs, the number of partners, borrowing, and a management score; (2) These effects persisted one year after the conclusion of the meetings; and (3) Firms randomized to have better peers exhibited higher growth. We exploit additional interventions to document concrete channels. (4) Managers shared exogenous business-relevant information, particularly when they were not competitors, showing that the meetings facilitated learning from peers. (5) Managers created more business partnerships in the regular than in other one-time meetings, showing that the meetings improved supplier-client matching. (6) Firms whose managers discussed management, partners, or finance improved more in the associated domain, suggesting that the content of conversations shaped the nature of gains. |
| Keywords: | business networks; field experiment; information diffusion; meetings; peer effects; referrals; Trust |
| JEL: | D22 L14 O12 O14 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:11717&r=bec |
| By: | Nathan Goldschlag; Stefano Bianchini; Julia Lane; Joseba Sanmartín Sola; Bruce Weinberg |
| Abstract: | Public support of research typically relies on the notion that universities are engines of economic development and that university research is a primary driver of high wage localized economic activity. However, the evidence supporting that notion is based on aggregate descriptive data, rather than detailed links at the level of individual transactions. Here we use new micro-data from three countries—France, Spain and the United States—to examine one mechanism whereby such economic activity is generated, namely purchases from regional businesses. We show that grant funds are more likely to be expended at businesses physically closer to universities than at those farther away. In addition, if a vendor has been a supplier to a grant once, that vendor is subsequently more likely to be a vendor on the same or related grants. Firms behave in a way that is consistent with the notion that propinquity is good for business; if a firm supplies a research grant at a university in a given year, it is more likely to open an establishment near that university in subsequent years than other firms. |
| JEL: | O31 R1 |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:23018&r=bec |
| By: | Löschel, Andreas; Lutz, Benjamin Johannes; Managi, Shunsuke |
| Abstract: | We investigate the effect of the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) on the economic performance of manufacturing firms in Germany. Our difference-in-differences framework relies on several parametric conditioning strategies and nearest neighbor matching. As a measure of economic performance, we use the firm specific distance to the stochastic production frontier recovered from official German production census data. None of our identification strategies provide evidence for a statistically significant negative effect of emissions trading on economic performance. On the contrary, the results of the nearest neighbor matching suggest that the EU ETS rather had a positive impact on the economic performance of the regulated firms, especially during the first compliance period. A subsample analysis confirms that EU ETS increased the efficiency of treated firms in at least some two-digit industries. |
| Keywords: | Control of Externalities,Emissions Trading,Economic Performance,Manufacturing,Difference-in-Differences,Nearest Neighbor Matching,Stochastic Production Frontier |
| JEL: | Q52 D22 Q38 Q48 |
| Date: | 2016 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:cawmdp:91&r=bec |
| By: | Crowley, Meredith A; Meng, Ning; Song, Huasheng |
| Abstract: | We estimate how a rise in uncertainty about future tariff rates impacts firm decisions to enter into and exit from export markets. Using Chinese customs transactions between 2000-2009, we exploit time-variation in product-level trade policy and find that Chinese firms are less likely to enter new foreign markets and more likely to exit from established foreign markets when their products are subject to increased trade policy uncertainty. Our analysis is based on the phenomenon of ``tariff echoing'' -- after a tariff hike in one country, another country is likely to raise its tariff on the same product. Overall, we find that if there had been no trade policy uncertainty created by the use of contingent tariffs, Chinese entry into foreign markets would have been roughly 2 percent higher per year. We use our model to counterfactually estimate how much entry by Chinese firms over 2001-2009 was due to future trade policy certainty provided by membership in the WTO. |
| Keywords: | antidumping; China shock; Chinese exporters; information spillovers; Trade agreements; Trade policy uncertainty |
| JEL: | F12 F13 F14 |
| Date: | 2016–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:11722&r=bec |
| By: | Joachim Wagner (Leuphana University Lueneburg, Germany) |
| Abstract: | This paper uses information on import transactions by German firms from 2009 to 2012 merged with information on characteristics of the importers taken from surveys by the Statistical Offices to document that a large share of importers engage in multiple import sourcing by importing the same good from more than one source country in a year and that a large share of total imports is due to multiple sourcing. It is shown that the probability of multiple import sourcing and the share of imports from multiple sourcing in total imports increase with firm productivity and firm size after controlling for detailed industry affiliation. |
| Keywords: | Imports, Multiple import sourcing, Transaction level data, Germany |
| JEL: | F14 |
| Date: | 2017–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:lue:wpaper:369&r=bec |
| By: | Cai, Dapeng (Nanzan University); Jørgensen, Jan Guldager (Department of Business and Economics) |
| Abstract: | We model a two-country bargaining process over the coordination of a horizontally differentiated product standard. We show that the necessary conditions for bargaining to take place are (i) firm heterogeneity and (ii) sufficiently high complying costs. When firms compete à la Cournot in the Home market and when bargaining takes place, our results suggest that mutual recognition of standards, and not the harmonization of standards, inevitably emerges as Home’s optimal choice. We also demonstrate that mutual recognition can maximize global welfare. Our results largely hold when firms compete à la Bertrand. |
| Keywords: | Product standards; mutual recognition; harmonization; international bargaining; lobbying; horizontal differentiation |
| JEL: | C71 D72 F12 F13 |
| Date: | 2017–01–06 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hhs:sdueko:2017_001&r=bec |
| By: | Lábaj, Martin; Morvay, Karol; Silanic, Peter; Weiss, Christoph; Yontcheva, Biliana |
| Abstract: | The present paper provides first microlevel (indirect) empirical evidence on changes in the determinants of firm profitability, the role of fixed and sunk costs, as well as the nature of competition for a transition economy. We estimate size thresholds required to support different numbers of firms for four retail and professional service industries in a large number of geographic markets in Slovakia. The three time periods in the analysis (1995, 2001 and 2010) characterize different stages of the transition process. Specific emphasis is given to spatial spill-over effects between local markets. Estimation results obtained from a spatial ordered probit model suggest that entry barriers have declined considerably (except for restaurants) and the intensity of competition has increased. We further find that demand spill-overs and/or the effects associated with a positive correlation in unobservable explanatory variables seem to outweigh negative spill-over effects caused by competitive forces between neighboring cities and villages. The importance of these spatial spill-over effects differs across industries. |
| Keywords: | entry thresholds; competition; Slovakia; transition; geographic markets |
| Date: | 2016–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wus005:4851&r=bec |
| By: | Gugler, Klaus; Haxhimusa, Adhurim; Liebensteiner, Mario; Schindler, Nora |
| Abstract: | The recent transformation of European electricity markets with increasing generation from intermittent renewables brings about many challenges. Among them, decaying wholesale prices, partly due to support schemes for renewables, may send insufficient investment signals for other technologies. We investigate the investment decision in a structural equation based on the Tobin's q-model, which we extend by both industry- and firm-technology-specific uncertainty. We utilize rich and novel data at the disaggregated firm generation technology level of European electricity generating firms for the period 2006-2014. Our results show that investment in any generation technology follows market incentives despite sunk and irreversible capital, confirming the implications of the q-model. Moreover, while firm-technology-specific uncertainty decreases firms' investment activity, especially in coal and gas, aggregate uncertainty triggers firms' investment. Our results raise concerns about system reliability in the long run since conventional technologies still serve as a flexible system back-up. (authors' abstract) |
| Keywords: | Tobin's q; Uncertainty; Investment; Electricity |
| Date: | 2016–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wiw:wus005:5177&r=bec |