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Innovation Responses of Japanese Firms to Chinese Import Competition

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  • YAMASHITA Nobuaki
  • YAMAUCHI Isamu

Abstract

This paper examines innovation response of a panel of Japanese firms to the intensified import competition from China for the period 1994-2009. We build a comprehensive firm-level dataset linking innovation activities including patenting and research and development (R&D) merged to cross-industry measures of Chinese import competition. Carefully accounting for a simultaneity bias between innovation and importing and the possible heterogeneous effects across firms, it is found that firms filed for more patents in response to increased import competition from China. However, this effect is only evident for a group of globally engaged firms. At the same time, Chinese import competition has adversely affected the quality of innovation as measured by citations. Overall, firms with a more domestic market focus are the ones who have felt most of the Chinese import competition, which is also reflected in their declined R&D efforts.

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  • YAMASHITA Nobuaki & YAMAUCHI Isamu, 2017. "Innovation Responses of Japanese Firms to Chinese Import Competition," Discussion papers 17126, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    • Handle: RePEc:eti:dpaper:17126
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    Cited by:

    1. Masami Imai & Michiru Sawada, 2022. "Does a Financial Crisis Impair Corporate Innovation?," Wesleyan Economics Working Papers 2022-002, Wesleyan University, Department of Economics.
    2. Mauro Caselli & Stefano Schiavo, 2020. "Markups, import competition and exporting," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(5), pages 1309-1326, May.
    3. HASHIMOTO Yuki, 2020. "Global Competition, Worker Retention, and Immigrant Employment in Manufacturing SMEs," Discussion papers 20071, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    4. S, Minkyu., 2021. "The impact of trade on R&D: Evidence from UK firms," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 2151, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    5. Shuhei Kainuma & Yukiko U. Saito, 2022. "China's impact on regional employment: Propagation through input–output linkages and co‐location patterns," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(11), pages 3559-3601, November.
    6. Klaus S. Friesenbichler & Andreas Reinstaller, 2021. "Do Firms Facing Competitors from Emerging Markets Behave Differently? Evidence from Austrian Manufacturing Firms," WIFO Working Papers 625, WIFO.
    7. SAITO Yukiko & KAINUMA Shuhei & Michal FABINGER, 2020. "China's Impact on Regional Employment: Propagation through Supply Chains and Co-agglomeration Pattern," Discussion papers 20054, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    8. Ito, Keiko & Ikeuchi, Kenta & Criscuolo, Chiara & Timmis, Jonathan & Bergeaud, Antonin, 2023. "Global value chains and domestic innovation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(3).
    9. Gu, Grace & Malik, Samreen & Pozzoli, Dario & Rocha, Vera, 2021. "Worker Reallocation, Firm Innovation, and Chinese Import Competition," Working Papers 9-2021, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Economics.
    10. Akira Sasahara, 2022. "The Empirics of the China Trade Shock: A Summary of Estimation Methods and A Literature Review," Keio-IES Discussion Paper Series 2022-008, Institute for Economics Studies, Keio University.
    11. Klaus S. Friesenbichler & Agnes Kügler & Andreas Reinstaller, 2021. "The Impact of Import Competition from China on Firm-level Productivity Growth in the EU," WIFO Working Papers 623, WIFO.
    12. HAYAKAWA Kazunobu & ITO Tadashi & URATA Shujiro, 2022. "Impacts of Increased Chinese Imports on Japan’s Labor Market: Firm and Regional Aspects," Discussion papers 22037, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).

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