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Importers, Exporters and Multinationals: Exploring the Hierarchy of International Linkages

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The purpose of this paper is to empirically explore two dimensions of the firm hierarchy of international market-specific linkages using data for Swedish manufacturing firms over the 1997 to 2007 period. First, we investigate the productivity ordering with respect to importing, exporting and investing abroad. Second, we investigate the productivity ordering with respect to linkage complexity (i.e. the number of linkages at firm level). Our findings support a general productivity hierarchy from importing to exporting and then investing abroad as well as from low- to high-linkage complexity. However, an industry-by-industry examination shows that the hierarchical structure is only generally upheld for linkage complexity while the ordering of the three linkages does not exhibit the same regularity across industries. In extending the analysis, we find these irregularities to be upheld by industry characteristics. Lastly, we go beyond the productivity ordering and explore firm characteristics correlated with the linkage complexity.

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  • Gullstrand, Joakim & Olofsdotter, Karin & Thede, Susanna, 2014. "Importers, Exporters and Multinationals: Exploring the Hierarchy of International Linkages," Working Papers 2014:42, Lund University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:lunewp:2014_042
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    Cited by:

    1. Joachim Wagner, 2018. "Multiple Import Sourcing. First Evidence for German Enterprises from Manufacturing Industries," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 29(1), pages 165-175, February.
    2. Hansson, Åsa & Olofsdotter, Karin & Thede, Susanna, 2016. "Do Multinationals Pay Less in Taxes than Domestic Firms? Evidence from the Swedish Manufacturing Sector," Working Papers 2016:17, Lund University, Department of Economics.
    3. Gullstrand, Joakim, 2017. "The Features of a Survey on the Export Decisions of Swedish Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises," Working Papers 2017:6, Lund University, Department of Economics.
    4. Fariñas, José C. & Martín-Marcos, Ana & Velázquez, Francisco J., 2019. "Estimating the Scope Elasticity of Multinational Firms: An Empirical Assessment," MPRA Paper 94990, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. José C. Fariñas & Ana Martín-Marcos & Francisco J. Velázquez, 2021. "The Geographical Scope of Multinational Firms and Heterogeneity," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 32(4), pages 761-788, September.
    6. Shubin Yang & Chris Milner & Sandra Lancheros & Saileshsingh Gunessee, 2020. "Access to Finance, Technology Investments and Exporting Decisions of Indian Services Firms," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 31(5), pages 1009-1036, November.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    manufacturing firms; productivity ordering; market linkages;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • F21 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Investment; Long-Term Capital Movements
    • F23 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - Multinational Firms; International Business

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