IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/canjec/v44y2011i2p541-560.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Heterogeneous firms, trade liberalization and agglomeration

Author

Listed:
  • Hisamitsu Saito
  • Munisamy Gopinath
  • JunJie Wu

Abstract

In this study, we develop an economic model to examine agglomeration of heterogeneous firms following trade liberalization. In a closed economy, we show that high‐productivity firms are more likely to agglomerate because they benefit more from agglomeration than their low‐productivity counterparts. However, trade liberalization, especially with a high‐productivity partner, favours partial agglomeration; that is, low‐productivity firms relocate away from the region where high‐productivity firms agglomerate. Consequently, the welfare gap between the domestic regions of an economy narrows following trade liberalization. The latter result suggests that trade liberalization promotes regional economic development. On développe un modèle économique pour examiner l’agglomération de firmes hétérogènes à la suite de la libéralisation du commerce. Dans une économie fermée, on montre que les firmes à haute productivité sont davantage susceptibles de s’agglomérer parce qu’elles tirent plus d’avantages de l’agglomération que les firmes à basse productivité. Cependant, la libéralisation du commerce, en particulier avec un partenaire à haute productivité, favorise l’agglomération partielle, i.e., que les firmes à basse productivité se relocalise hors de la région où les firmes à haute productivité s’agglomèrent. En conséquence, l’écart de bien‐être entre les régions domestiques d’une économie s’amenuise à la suite de la libéralisation du commerce. Ce dernier résultat suggère que la libéralisation du commerce favorise le développement économique régional.

Suggested Citation

  • Hisamitsu Saito & Munisamy Gopinath & JunJie Wu, 2011. "Heterogeneous firms, trade liberalization and agglomeration," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 44(2), pages 541-560, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:wly:canjec:v:44:y:2011:i:2:p:541-560
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1540-5982.2011.01643.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5982.2011.01643.x
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1540-5982.2011.01643.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andrew B. Bernard & J. Bradford Jensen & Stephen J. Redding & Peter K. Schott, 2007. "Firms in International Trade," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 21(3), pages 105-130, Summer.
    2. James R. Tybout, 2000. "Manufacturing Firms in Developing Countries: How Well Do They Do, and Why?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 38(1), pages 11-44, March.
    3. Richard Baldwin & Rikard Forslid & Philippe Martin & Gianmarco Ottaviano & Frederic Robert-Nicoud, 2005. "Economic Geography and Public Policy," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 7524.
    4. Bernard, Andrew B. & Bradford Jensen, J., 1999. "Exceptional exporter performance: cause, effect, or both?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 1-25, February.
    5. Volker Nocke, 2006. "A Gap for Me: Entrepreneurs and Entry," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 4(5), pages 929-956, September.
    6. Galiani, Sebastian & Sanguinetti, Pablo, 2003. "The impact of trade liberalization on wage inequality: evidence from Argentina," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(2), pages 497-513, December.
    7. Okubo, Toshihiro & Picard, Pierre M. & Thisse, Jacques-François, 2010. "The spatial selection of heterogeneous firms," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(2), pages 230-237, November.
    8. Krugman, Paul & Elizondo, Raul Livas, 1996. "Trade policy and the Third World metropolis," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 137-150, April.
    9. Behrens, Kristian & Gaigne, Carl & Ottaviano, Gianmarco I.P. & Thisse, Jacques-Francois, 2007. "Countries, regions and trade: On the welfare impacts of economic integration," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(5), pages 1277-1301, July.
    10. Gianmarco Ottaviano & Takatoshi Tabuchi & Jacques-François Thisse, 2021. "Agglomeration And Trade Revisited," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Firms and Workers in a Globalized World Larger Markets, Tougher Competition, chapter 3, pages 59-85, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    11. Krugman, Paul, 1991. "Increasing Returns and Economic Geography," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(3), pages 483-499, June.
    12. Luís M B Cabral & José Mata, 2003. "On the Evolution of the Firm Size Distribution: Facts and Theory," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(4), pages 1075-1090, September.
    13. Monfort, Philippe & Nicolini, Rosella, 2000. "Regional Convergence and International Integration," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(2), pages 286-306, September.
    14. Richard E. Baldwin & Toshihiro Okubo, 2006. "Heterogeneous firms, agglomeration and economic geography: spatial selection and sorting," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 6(3), pages 323-346, June.
    15. Goldberg, Pinelopi Koujianou & Pavcnik, Nina, 2005. "Trade, wages, and the political economy of trade protection: evidence from the Colombian trade reforms," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 75-105, May.
    16. Henderson, J. Vernon, 2003. "Marshall's scale economies," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 1-28, January.
    17. Chad Syverson, 2004. "Market Structure and Productivity: A Concrete Example," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 112(6), pages 1181-1222, December.
    18. Nicola D. Coniglio, 2002. "Regional Intergration and Migration: An Economic Geography Model with Hetergenous Labour Force," Working Papers 2003_1, Business School - Economics, University of Glasgow.
    19. Hisamitsu Saito & Munisamy Gopinath, 2009. "Plants' self-selection, agglomeration economies and regional productivity in Chile," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 9(4), pages 539-558, July.
    20. Zadia M. Feliciano, 2001. "Workers and Trade Liberalization: The Impact of Trade Reforms in Mexico on Wages and Employment," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 55(1), pages 95-115, October.
    21. Villar, Olga Alonso, 1999. "Spatial distribution of production and international trade: a note," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 371-380, May.
    22. Tabuchi, Takatoshi, 1998. "Urban Agglomeration and Dispersion: A Synthesis of Alonso and Krugman," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 333-351, November.
    23. Feenstra, Robert C. & Hanson, Gordon H., 1997. "Foreign direct investment and relative wages: Evidence from Mexico's maquiladoras," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(3-4), pages 371-393, May.
    24. Hanson, Gordon H, 1997. "Increasing Returns, Trade and the Regional Structure of Wages," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 107(440), pages 113-133, January.
    25. Rosenthal, Stuart S. & Strange, William C., 2004. "Evidence on the nature and sources of agglomeration economies," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: J. V. Henderson & J. F. Thisse (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 49, pages 2119-2171, Elsevier.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rikard Forslid & Toshihiro Okubo, 2015. "Which Firms Are Left In The Periphery? Spatial Sorting Of Heterogeneous Firms With Scale Economies In Transportation," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(1), pages 51-65, January.
    2. Hangtian Xu & Yiming Zhou, 2023. "Inter-industry trade and heterogeneous firms: country size matters," The Japanese Economic Review, Springer, vol. 74(1), pages 57-81, January.
    3. von Ehrlich, Maximilian & Seidel, Tobias, 2013. "More similar firms — More similar regions? On the role of firm heterogeneity for agglomeration," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(3), pages 539-548.
    4. Karavidas Dionysios, 2020. "Market Access and Home Market Effect," Open Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 3(1), pages 42-49, January.
    5. Valerien O. Pede & Raymond J. G. M. Florax & Henri L. F. de Groot & Gustavo Barboza, 2021. "Technological leadership and sectorial employment growth: A spatial econometric analysis for U.S. counties," Economic Notes, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA, vol. 50(1), February.
    6. Lu Lan & Gao Qisheng & Zhan Chenglin, 2023. "Influence Mechanism Analysis of the Spatial Evolution of Inter-Provincial Population Flow in China Based on Epidemic Prevention and Control," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 42(3), pages 1-22, June.
    7. Hisamitsu Saito, 2015. "Firm Heterogeneity, Multiplant Choice, And Agglomeration," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(4), pages 540-559, September.
    8. Yiming Zhou, 2020. "Heterogeneous firms, urban costs and agglomeration," International Journal of Economic Theory, The International Society for Economic Theory, vol. 16(3), pages 329-348, September.
    9. Sun, Churen & Yu, Zhihao & Zhang, Tao, 2012. "Agglomeration and Trade with Heterogeneous Firms," MPRA Paper 49001, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 17 Aug 2013.
    10. Karavidas Dionysios, 2020. "Market Access and Home Market Effect," Open Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 3(1), pages 42-49, January.
    11. Kato, Hayato & Okubo, Toshihiro, 2018. "Market size in globalization," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 34-60.
    12. Forslid, Rikard & Okubo, Toshihiro, 2012. "On the development strategy of countries of intermediate size—An analysis of heterogeneous firms in a multi-region framework," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(4), pages 747-756.
    13. Saito, Hisamitsu, 2018. "Foreign multinationals, selection of local firms, and regional productivity in Indonesia," MPRA Paper 85158, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Karim Badr & Reham Rizk & Chahir Zaki, 2019. "Firm productivity and agglomeration economies: evidence from Egyptian data," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(51), pages 5528-5544, November.
    15. Zhou, Yiming & Xu, Hangtian, 2019. "Inter-industry trade and heterogeneous firms: Country size matters," MPRA Paper 94746, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Churen Sun & Zhihao Yu & Tao Zhang, 2012. "Agglomeration, Productivity, and Firms¡® Exports: Evidence from Chinese Firm-level Data," ERSA conference papers ersa12p882, European Regional Science Association.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Stef Proost & Jacques-François Thisse, 2019. "What Can Be Learned from Spatial Economics?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 57(3), pages 575-643, September.
    2. Kristian Behrens & Frédéric Robert‐Nicoud, 2009. "Krugman's Papers in Regional Science: The 100 dollar bill on the sidewalk is gone and the 2008 Nobel Prize well‐deserved," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 88(2), pages 467-489, June.
    3. Hisamitsu Saito, 2015. "Firm Heterogeneity, Multiplant Choice, And Agglomeration," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(4), pages 540-559, September.
    4. José M. Gaspar, 2018. "A prospective review on New Economic Geography," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 61(2), pages 237-272, September.
    5. Breinlich, Holger & Ottaviano, Gianmarco I.P. & Temple, Jonathan R.W., 2014. "Regional Growth and Regional Decline," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 4, pages 683-779, Elsevier.
    6. Behrens, Kristian & Robert-Nicoud, Frédéric, 2008. "Survival of the fittest in cities: agglomeration, selection, and polarisation," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 28506, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    7. Maria Florencia Granato, 2011. "REGIONAL NEW ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY (refereed paper)," ERSA conference papers ersa10p747, European Regional Science Association.
    8. repec:esx:essedp:729 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Békés, Gábor & Harasztosi, Péter, 2013. "Agglomeration premium and trading activity of firms," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 51-64.
    10. Marius Brülhart, 2011. "The spatial effects of trade openness: a survey," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 147(1), pages 59-83, April.
    11. Stephen J. Redding, 2013. "Economic Geography: A Review of the Theoretical and Empirical Literature," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Daniel Bernhofen & Rod Falvey & David Greenaway & Udo Kreickemeier (ed.), Palgrave Handbook of International Trade, chapter 16, pages 497-531, Palgrave Macmillan.
    12. Henk L. M. Kox, 2013. "Export Decisions of Services Firms Between Agglomeration Effects and Market-Entry Costs," Advances in Spatial Science, in: Juan R. Cuadrado-Roura (ed.), Service Industries and Regions, edition 127, chapter 0, pages 177-201, Springer.
    13. Forslid, Rikard & Okubo, Toshihiro, 2017. "Early agglomeration or late agglomeration?: Two phases of development with spatial sorting," CEPR Discussion Papers 11977, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    14. Forslid, Rikard & Okubo, Toshihiro, 2012. "On the development strategy of countries of intermediate size—An analysis of heterogeneous firms in a multi-region framework," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(4), pages 747-756.
    15. Okubo, Toshihiro, 2009. "Trade liberalisation and agglomeration with firm heterogeneity: Forward and backward linkages," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(5), pages 530-541, September.
    16. Forslid, Rikard & Okubo, Toshihiro, 2014. "Spatial sorting with heterogeneous firms and heterogeneous sectors," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 42-56.
    17. Picard, Pierre M. & Okubo, Toshihiro, 2012. "Firms' locations under demand heterogeneity," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(6), pages 961-974.
    18. Pierre‐Philippe Combes & Gilles Duranton & Laurent Gobillon & Diego Puga & Sébastien Roux, 2012. "The Productivity Advantages of Large Cities: Distinguishing Agglomeration From Firm Selection," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 80(6), pages 2543-2594, November.
    19. Zeng, Dao-Zhi & Zhao, Laixun, 2010. "Globalization, interregional and international inequalities," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 352-361, May.
    20. Ottaviano, Gianmarco & Thisse, Jacques-Francois, 2004. "Agglomeration and economic geography," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: J. V. Henderson & J. F. Thisse (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 58, pages 2563-2608, Elsevier.
    21. Georg Hirte & Christian Lessmann, 2014. "Trade, Integration, and Interregional Inequality," CESifo Working Paper Series 4799, CESifo.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • F15 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Economic Integration
    • R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:canjec:v:44:y:2011:i:2:p:541-560. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1111/(ISSN)1540-5982 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.