IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fth/caldec/96-14.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Business Groups And Trade In East Asia: Part 2, Product Variety

Author

Listed:
  • Robert C. Feenstra
  • Tzu-Han Yang
  • Gary G. Hamilton

Abstract

We analyze the impact of market structure on the trade performance of South Korea, Taiwan and Japan. Korea has many large, vertically-integrated business groups known as chaebol, whereas business groups in Taiwan are smaller and more specialized in the production of intermediate inputs. We test the hypothesis that the greater vertical integration in Korea results in less product variety than for Taiwan, by constructing indexes product variety and "product mix" in their exports to the United States. It is found that Taiwan tends to export a greater variety of products to the U.S. than Korea, and this holds across all industries. In addition, Taiwan exports relatively more high-priced intermediate inputs, whereas Korea exports relatively more high-priced final goods. A comparison with Japan is also presented, and we find that that Japan has greater product variety in its sales to the U.S. than either Taiwan or Korea.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert C. Feenstra & Tzu-Han Yang & Gary G. Hamilton, "undated". "Business Groups And Trade In East Asia: Part 2, Product Variety," Department of Economics 96-14, California Davis - Department of Economics.
  • Handle: RePEc:fth:caldec:96-14
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.econ.ucdavis.edu/working_papers/96-14.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Feenstra, Robert C, 1994. "New Product Varieties and the Measurement of International Prices," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(1), pages 157-177, March.
    2. Gary R. Saxonhouse, 1993. "What Does Japanese Trade Structure Tell Us about Japanese Trade Policy?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 7(3), pages 21-43, Summer.
    3. Granovetter, Mark, 1995. "Coase Revisited: Business Groups in the Modern Economy," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 4(1), pages 93-130.
    4. Dani Rodrik, 1994. "Industrial Organization and Product Quality: Evidence from South Korean and Taiwanese Exports," NBER Chapters, in: Empirical Studies of Strategic Trade Policy, pages 195-210, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Hamilton, Gary G & Feenstra, Robert C, 1995. "Varieties of Hierarchies and Markets: An Introduction," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 4(1), pages 51-91.
    6. Helpman, Elhanan, 1987. "Imperfect competition and international trade: Evidence from fourteen industrial countries," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 62-81, March.
    7. repec:fth:michin:337 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Davis, Donald R., 1995. "Intra-industry trade: A Heckscher-Ohlin-Ricardo approach," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(3-4), pages 201-226, November.
    9. Robert Z. Lawrence, 1991. "Efficient or Exclusionist: The Import Behavior of Japanese Corporate Groups," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 22(1), pages 311-341.
    10. Sato, Kazuo, 1976. "The Ideal Log-Change Index Number," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 58(2), pages 223-228, May.
    11. K. C. Fung, 1991. "Characteristics of Japanese Industrial Groups and Their Potential Impact on US-Japanese Trade," NBER Chapters, in: Empirical Studies of Commercial Policy, pages 137-168, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    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. Tito Boeri & Joaquim Oliveira-Martins, 2002. "Transition, variété des produits et intégration économique," Economie & Prévision, La Documentation Française, vol. 0(1), pages 55-69.
    2. Feenstra, Robert C. & Madani, Dorsati & Yang, Tzu-Han & Liang, Chi-Yuan, 1999. "Testing endogenous growth in South Korea and Taiwan," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(2), pages 317-341, December.
    3. Tito Boeri & Joaquim Oliveira Martins, 2002. "Varieties, Jobs and EU Enlargement," Rivista di Politica Economica, SIPI Spa, vol. 92(1), pages 139-178, January-F.

    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. Feenstra, Robert C. & Yang, Tzu-Han & Hamilton, Gary G., 1999. "Business groups and product variety in trade: evidence from South Korea, Taiwan and Japan," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 71-100, June.
    2. Feenstra, R.C. & Yang, T.H. & Hamilton, G.G., 1993. "Market Structure and International Trade: Business Groups in East Asia," Papers 93-23, California Davis - Institute of Governmental Affairs.
    3. James E. Rauch, 2001. "Business and Social Networks in International Trade," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 39(4), pages 1177-1203, December.
    4. Chang-Yang Lee & Ji-Hwan Lee & Ajai S. Gaur, 2017. "Are large business groups conducive to industry innovation? The moderating role of technological appropriability," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 34(2), pages 313-337, June.
    5. Belderbos, René & Wakasugi, Ryuhei & Zou, Jianglei, 2012. "Business groups, foreign direct investment, and capital goods trade: The import behavior of Japanese affiliates," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 187-200.
    6. Keith Head & John Ries & Barbara J. Spencer, 2004. "Vertical Networks and US Auto Parts Exports: Is Japan Different?," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(1), pages 37-67, March.
    7. Greaney, Theresa M., 2005. "Measuring network effects on trade: Are Japanese affiliates distinctive?," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 194-214, June.
    8. Peter Drysdale, 1995. "The Question of Access to the Japanese Market," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 71(3), pages 271-283, September.
    9. Knetter, Michael M., 1997. "Why are retail prices in Japan so high? Evidence from German export prices," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 15(5), pages 549-572, August.
    10. Fung, K. C., 2002. "International Trade and Bank Groups: Welfare Enhancing or Welfare Reducing?," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 212-226, June.
    11. Benkovskis, Konstantins & Wörz, Julia, 2018. "What drives the market share changes? Price versus non-price factors," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 9-29.
    12. W. Erwin Diewert & Robert C. Feenstra, 2021. "Estimating the Benefits of New Products," NBER Chapters, in: Big Data for Twenty-First-Century Economic Statistics, pages 437-473, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Robert Z. Lawrence & Lawrence Edward, 2010. "Do Developed and Developing Countries Compete Head to Head in High Tech?," Working Paper Series WP10-8, Peterson Institute for International Economics.
    14. Redding, Stephen J. & Weinstein, David E., 2016. "A unified approach to estimating demand and welfare," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 67681, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    15. Greenaway, David & Torstensson, Johan, 2000. "Economic Geography, Comparative Advantage and Trade within Industries: Evidence from the OECD," Journal of Economic Integration, Center for Economic Integration, Sejong University, vol. 15, pages 260-280.
    16. Diewert, W. Erwin & Fox, Kevin J., 2017. "Substitution Bias in Multilateral Methods for CPI Construction using Scanner Data," Microeconomics.ca working papers erwin_diewert-2017-3, Vancouver School of Economics, revised 23 Mar 2017.
    17. By Michael Funke & Ralf Ruhwedel, 2001. "Product Variety and Economic Growth: Empirical Evidence for the OECD Countries," IMF Staff Papers, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 48(2), pages 1-1.
    18. Diewert, W, Erwin & Feenstra, Robert, 2017. "Estimating the Benefits and Costs of New and Disappearing Products," Microeconomics.ca working papers tina_marandola-2017-12, Vancouver School of Economics, revised 19 Dec 2017.
    19. Sourish Dutta, 2023. "Horizontal and Vertical Differentiation: Approaching Endogenous Measurement in Intra-industry Trade," Papers 2307.10660, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2023.
    20. Balk, Bert M. & Rambaldi, Alicia N. & Rao, D. S. Prasada, 2022. "Macro-Economic Measures For A Globalized World: Global Growth And Inflation," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 26(2), pages 314-360, March.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • D23 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Organizational Behavior; Transaction Costs; Property Rights

    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:fth:caldec:96-14. 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: Thomas Krichel (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/educdus.html .

    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.