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on International Activities of Firms |
| By: | Lane, Nathaniel (University of Oxford); Barteska, Philipp; Kim, Oliver; Lee, Seung Joo |
| Abstract: | How did geopolitics shape East Asia’s economic development? We show that U.S. war procurement during the Vietnam War—a fiscal shock which peaked at 2.9 percent of South Korea's GDP, rivaling the Marshall Plan—catalyzed Korea’s export-led industrialization. We construct a new firm-level dataset linking Korean export records with U.S. procurement contracts (1966–1974) to estimate the causal impact of winning a contract on export performance. Winning an initial contract increases a firm’s likelihood of exporting by 46 percentage points and triples its export value. These effects extend beyond sales to the United States: treated firms also expanded into third-country markets. We validate our research design using unique, contemporaneous firm-level export targets, showing that contracts were not anticipated and unrelated to export shocks. The policy had lasting effects. We find that firms treated in the 1960s responded more strongly to South Korea’s heavy and chemical industry drive of the 1970s, indicating that U.S. procurement and domestic industrial policy were complementary. Our findings reveal a neglected channel through which Cold War geopolitics helped shape the East Asian economic miracle. |
| Date: | 2025–11–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:socarx:vxej4_v1 |
| By: | Kornher, Lukas; Sakyi, Daniel; Tannor, Linus Linnaeus |
| Abstract: | Agricultural exports are especially important because of their great potential for poverty reduction among smallholder farmers. However, many African countries, such as Ghana, fail to realize their full export potential due to institutional and technical constraints. This paper examines the importance of port efficiency and service quality in complying with food trade standards in Ghana. We provide a stylized theoretical model in which exporting firms are willing to pay for improved port service quality as long as the marginal revenue derived from a reduced likelihood of (border) rejection exceeds the marginal costs for improved service quality. We test the model's predictions using primary data from 120 agri-food exporters in Ghana. Our results show that about two-thirds of exporting firms have a positive willingness-to-pay for a reduction in the handling time at the port and the risk of spoilage due to inadequate handling. These findings emphasize the importance of trade facilitation measures in improving port efficiency and service quality to accelerate agricultural exports. |
| Keywords: | Agribusiness, International Relations/Trade |
| Date: | 2024–08–08 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iaae24:344297 |
| By: | Ma, Xiao; Muendler, Marc-Andreas; Nakab, Alejandro |
| Abstract: | Abstract: Export activity shapes workers’ experience-wage profiles. Using employer-employee and customs data for Brazilian manufacturing, we document that workers’ experience-wage profiles are steeper at exporters than at non-exporters and, among exporters, steeper at exporters shipping to high-income destinations. We develop and quantify a model featuring worker-firm wage bargaining, export-market entry by multi-worker firms, and human capital accumulation by workers to interpret the data. Human capital growth can explain one-half of the differences in wage profiles between exporters and non-exporters. We show that increased human capital per worker can account for one-half of the overall gains in real income from trade openness. |
| Keywords: | 38 Economics (for-2020), 3801 Applied Economics (for-2020), 3802 Econometrics (for-2020), 1402 Applied Economics (for), 1403 Econometrics (for), Economics (science-metrix), 3502 Banking, finance and investment (for-2020), 3801 Applied economics (for-2020), 3802 Econometrics (for-2020) |
| Date: | 2025–09–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cdl:ucsdec:qt3bp6c1hh |
| By: | Jaimovich, Esteban (University of Turin (ESOMAS Department) and Collegio Carlo Alberto); Madzharova, Boryana (Central Bank of Ireland, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, and CESIfo); Merella, Vincenzo (University of Cagliari and Prague University of Economics and Busines) |
| Abstract: | The paper investigates firms’ rollout strategies for quality-differentiated products across geographically dispersed markets. Using a theoretical framework that integrates nonhomothetic preferences, we show that premium goods are more likely to enter wealthier markets first, allowing firms to capture higher markups. We find that the main factors influencing the selection of follow-up markets differ by product quality: for premium goods, income levels are the primary determinant of expansion paths, whereas geographic proximity is the main driver for lower-quality products. Using micro-level data from the refrigeration industry, we confirm a significant positive association between market-entry order and income for higherquality products. Furthermore, we observe that follow-up markets tend to be geographically more dispersed for premium goods, reflecting a shift away from proximity-based expansion strategies. |
| Keywords: | market entry, gravity; nonhomothetic preferences, quality differentiated products. |
| JEL: | F1 F14 F23 L68 |
| Date: | 2025–11 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cbi:wpaper:18/rt/25 |