Export Market Participation with Sunk Costs and Firm Heterogeneity

Export Market Participation with Sunk Costs and Firm Heterogeneity PDF Author: Evis Sinani
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

Book Description
Abstract: In this paper we investigate the importance of sunk costs, firm characteristics and spillovers from nearby exporters on a firm's decision to participate in exporting. The empirical analysis involves the estimation of a non-structural, discrete choice, dynamic model with firm heterogeneity. By using panel data for Estonian companies from 1994 to 1999 we find that: (i) both sunk costs and observable firm characteristics are important determinants of export market participation; (ii) previous history matters, in that, if a firm has been exporting the previous period or the period before, it significantly increases the likelihood of the firm exporting in the current period; (iii) larger firms with high capital intensity and foreign ownership are more likely to be exporters; (iv) operating in an export-oriented industry increases a firm's likelihood of exporting

Export Market Participation

Export Market Participation PDF Author: Evis Sinani
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 42

Book Description
This paper investigates the importance of sunk costs, firm characteristics and spillovers from nearby exporters on a firm's export participation decision. The empirical analysis involves the estimation of a non-structural, discrete choice, dynamic model with firm heterogeneity. The results suggest that both sunk costs and observable firm characteristics are important determinants of export market participation. In addition, previous history matters, in that, if a firm has been exporting the last period or the period before that it significantly increases the likelihood of the firm exporting in the current period. This conclusion is robust across all specifications. Also, larger firms with high capital intensity and foreign owned are more likely be exporters. Finally, while there is no clear evidence on export spillovers, if a firm operates in an export-oriented industry increases the likelihood of exporting. Dynamic Panel, sunk costs, export decision.

An Empirical Model of Sunk Costs and the Decision to Export

An Empirical Model of Sunk Costs and the Decision to Export PDF Author: Mark J. Roberts
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 44

Book Description
Exports respond unpredictably to a change in real exchange rates, suggests evidence from the 1980s.Recent theoretical work explains this as a consequence of the sunk costs associated with breaking into foreign markets. Sunk costs include the cost of packaging, upgrading product quality, establishing marketing channels, and accumulating information on demand sources. The authors use micro panel data to estimate a dynamic discrete - choice model of participation in export markets, a model derived from the Krugman-Baldwin sunk - cost hysteresis framework. Applying the model to data on manufacturing plants in Colombia (1981-89), they test for the presence of sunk entry costs and quantify the importance of those costs in explaining export patterns. The econometric results reject the hypothesis that sunk costs are zero. The results, which control for both observed and unobserved sources of plant heterogeneity, indicate that prior export market experience has a substantial effect on the probability of exporting, but its effect depreciates fairly quickly. The reentry costs of plants that have been out of the export market for a year are substantially lower than the costs of a first-time exporter. After a year out of the export market, however, the reentry costs are not significantly different from the entry costs. Plant characteristics are also associated with export behavior: large old plants owned by corporations are more likely to export than other plants. Variations in plant-level cost and demand conditions have much less effect on the profitability of exporting than variations in macroeconomic conditions and sunk costs do. It appears especially difficult to break into foreign markets during periods of world recession.

Market Entry Costs, Producer Heterogeneity, and Export Dynamics

Market Entry Costs, Producer Heterogeneity, and Export Dynamics PDF Author: Sanghamitra Das
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Chemical industry
Languages : en
Pages : 72

Book Description
As the exchange rate, foreign demand, production costs and export promotion policies evolve, manufacturing firms are continually faced with two issues: Whether to be an exporter, and if so, how much to export. We develop a dynamic structural model of export supply that characterizes these two decisions and estimate the model using plant-level panel data on Colombian chemical producers. The model embodies uncertainty, plant-level heterogeneity in export profits, and sunk entry costs for plants breaking into foreign markets. Our estimates, and the simulation exercises that they support, yield several implications. First, entry costs are typically large, but vary greatly across producers. Second, there is substantial cross-plant heterogeneity in gross expected export profit streams. Third, these large entry costs make expectations about future exporting conditions important for many producers, so changes in the exchange rate regime that are credible induce much more entry than those that are not. Fourth, however, most of the entry and exit takes place among marginal exporters who contribute little to aggregate export revenues. Finally, subsidies on export earnings have a much larger impact on export revenues (per dollar spent) than subsidies that reduce the entry costs faced by new exporters.

Firm Heterogeneity and Export Participation

Firm Heterogeneity and Export Participation PDF Author: Matthew A. Cole
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business enterprises
Languages : en
Pages : 44

Book Description


Firm Heterogeneity, Origin of Ownership and Export Participation

Firm Heterogeneity, Origin of Ownership and Export Participation PDF Author: Matthew A. Cole
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
This paper investigates the relationship between firm heterogeneity and a firm's decision to export, using the annual survey of Thai manufacturing firms from 2001 to 2004. A significant contribution of this paper is that we are, for the first time, able to break down FDI by country of origin to observe whether the behaviour of MNEs differs by region of origin. We find that sunk entry costs and firm characteristics are important factors in explaining a firm's decision to export. Another important determinant is the ownership structure of the firm, with foreign-owned firms having a higher probability of exporting than domestically owned firms, although this differs across country of ownership with potentially important policy implications. Export platform FDI is used to explain the behaviour of foreign firms that invest in Thailand. Using three measures of total factor productivity, we also find that highly productive firms self-select into the export market. The implication for governments of developing countries is the need to think carefully about how and to whom they target their inward FDI policies as a means of growth. The heterogeneous behaviour of multinationals from different nations means that policies targeting specific regions or countries may be preferable to general tax concessions or the implementation of special economic zones that are open to all.

Falling Trade Costs, Heterogeneous Firms, and Industry Dynamics

Falling Trade Costs, Heterogeneous Firms, and Industry Dynamics PDF Author: Andrew B. Bernard
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Commerce
Languages : en
Pages : 50

Book Description
This paper examines the response of industries and firms to changes in trade costs. Several new firm-level models of international trade with heterogeneous firms predict that industry productivity will rise as trade costs fall due to the reallocation of activity across plants within an industry. Using disaggregated U.S. import data, we create a new measure of trade costs over time and industries. As the models predict, productivity growth is faster in industries with falling trade costs. We also find evidence supporting the major hypotheses of the heterogenous-firm models. Plants in industries with falling trade costs are more likely to die or become exporters. Existing exporters increase their shipments abroad. The results do not apply equally across all sectors but are strongest for industries most likely to be producing horizontally-differentiated tradeable goods.

An Empirical Model of Sunk Costs and the Decision to Export

An Empirical Model of Sunk Costs and the Decision to Export PDF Author: Mark J. Roberts
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 44

Book Description
March 1995 Exports respond unpredictably to a change in real exchange rates, suggests evidence from the 1980s. Recent theoretical work explains this as a consequence of the sunk costs associated with breaking into foreign markets. Sunk costs include the cost of packaging, upgrading product quality, establishing marketing channels, and accumulating information on demand sources. The authors use micro panel data to estimate a dynamic discrete-choice model of participation in export markets, a model derived from the Krugman-Baldwin sunk-cost hysteresis framework. Applying the model to data on manufacturing plants in Colombia (1981-89), they test for the presence of sunk entry costs and quantify the importance of those costs in explaining export patterns. The econometric results reject the hypothesis that sunk costs are zero. The results, which control for both observed and unobserved sources of plant heterogeneity, indicate that prior export market experience has a substantial effect on the probability of exporting, but its effect depreciates fairly quickly. The reentry costs of plants that have been out of the export market for a year are substantially lower than the costs of a first-time exporter. After a year out of the export market, however, the reentry costs are not significantly different from the entry costs. Plant characteristics are also associated with export behavior: large old plants owned by corporations are more likely to export than other plants. Variations in plant-level cost and demand conditions have much less effect on the profitability of exporting than variations in macroeconomic conditions and sunk costs do. It appears especially difficult to break into foreign markets during periods of world recession.

Comparative Advantage and Heterogeneous Firms

Comparative Advantage and Heterogeneous Firms PDF Author: Andrew B. Bernard
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
This paper examines how country, industry and firm characteristics interact in general equilibrium to determine nations' responses to trade liberalization. When firms possess heterogeneous productivity, countries differ in relative factor abundance and industries vary in factor intensity, falling trade costs induce reallocations of resources both within and across industries and countries. These reallocations generate substantial job turnover in all sectors, spur relatively more creative destruction in comparative advantage industries than comparative disadvantage industries, and magnify ex ante comparative advantage to create additional welfare gains from trade. The relative ascendance of high-productivity firms within industries boosts aggregate productivity and drives down consumer prices. In contrast with the neoclassical model, these price declines dampen and can even reverse the real wage losses of scarce factors as countries liberalize.

Essays on firm heterogeneity and quality in international trade

Essays on firm heterogeneity and quality in international trade PDF Author: Eddy Bekkers
Publisher: Rozenberg Publishers
ISBN: 905170903X
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 144

Book Description
The thesis is organized as follows. Chapter 2 contains a survey of the three most in‡fluential models on fi…rm heterogeneity and of the most important empirical work on firrm heterogeneity. The chapter starts with a brief review of the homogeneous productivity imperfect competition literature. Chapter 2 …finishes with a comparison of the three most in‡fluential models of fi…rm heterogeneity and the oligopoly model put forward in the thesis. Chapter 3 addresses exporting uncertainty under heterogeneous popularity. Chapter 4 contains the chapter on …firm heterogeneity under oligopoly. Chapter 5 constitutes the models on …firm heterogeneity and endogenous quality. Chapter 6 points out the within-sector specialization model. Chapter 7 addresses the effect of importer characteristics on unit values and the role of markups and quality to explain this effect. Chapter 8 concludes.