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How do exporters react to changes in cost competitiveness ?

Author

Listed:
  • Stefaan Decramer

    (University of Leuven)

  • Catherine Fuss

    (Research Department, NBB, and Université Libre de Bruxelles)

  • Jozef Konings

    (University of Leuven and University of Ljubljana)

Abstract

Policy-making institutions such as the European Commission, the ECB and the OECD often use unit labor costs as a measure of international competitiveness. The goal of this paper is to examine how well this measure is related to international export performance at the firm level. To this end, we use Belgian firm-level data for the period 1999-2010 to analyze the impact of unit labor costs on exports. We use exports adjusted for their import content. We find a statistically significant negative effect of unit labor costs on export performance of firms with an estimated elasticity of the intensive margin of exports ranging between -0.2 and -0.4. This result is robust to various specifications, including firm, time and sector fixed effects and estimation approaches. We find that this elasticity varies between sectors and between firms, with firms that are more labor-intensive having a higher elasticity of exports with respect to unit labor costs. The micro data also enable us to analyze the impact of unit labor costs on the extensive margin. Our results show that higher unit labor costs reduce the probability of starting to export for non-exporters and increase the probability of exporters stopping. While our results show that unit labor costs have an impact on the intensive margin and extensive margin of firm-level exports, the effect is rather low, suggesting that passthrough of costs into prices is limited or that demand for exported products is not elastic. The latter is consistent with recent trade models emphasizing that not only relative costs, but also demand factors such as quality and taste matter for explaining firm-level exports.

Suggested Citation

  • Stefaan Decramer & Catherine Fuss & Jozef Konings, 2015. "How do exporters react to changes in cost competitiveness ?," Working Paper Research 276, National Bank of Belgium.
  • Handle: RePEc:nbb:reswpp:201501-276
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Citations

    Blog mentions

    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Comment les exportations réagissent-elles à la compétitivité-coût ?
      by Martin Anota in D'un champ l'autre on 2015-03-11 02:16:11

    Citations

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    Cited by:

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    2. Karsten Staehr, 2021. "Export performance and capacity pressures in Central and Eastern Europe," International Economics, CEPII research center, issue 165, pages 204-217.
    3. E. Dhyne & C. Duprez & C. Fuss, 2015. "Main CompNet research results," Economic Review, National Bank of Belgium, issue iii, pages 103-116, December.
    4. Horen Voskeritsian & Michail Veliziotis & Panos Kapotas & Andreas Kornelakis, 2017. "Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Social Partners and Reforms in the Wage- Setting System in Greece under Austerity'," GreeSE – Hellenic Observatory Papers on Greece and Southeast Europe 114, Hellenic Observatory, LSE.
    5. Clément Malgouyres & Thierry Mayer, 2018. "Exports and labor costs: evidence from a French policy," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 154(3), pages 429-454, August.
    6. Engelbert Stockhammer & Collin Constantine & Severin Reissl, 2020. "Explaining the Euro crisis: current account imbalances, credit booms and economic policy in different economic paradigms," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(2), pages 231-266, April.
    7. Yang Liuyi & Zhu Yunchan & Ren Feirong, 2023. "Does government investment push up manufacturing labor costs? Evidence from China," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-10, December.
    8. Clément Carbonnier & Simon Fredon & Benoît Gauthier & Clément Malgouyres & Thierry Mayer & Loriane Py & Gwenaële Rot & Camille Urvoy, 2016. "Evaluation interdisciplinaire des impacts du CICE en matière de compétitivité internationale, d'investissement, d'emploi, de résultat net des entreprises et de salaires," Sciences Po publications info:hdl:2441/4v8c8tnfgu8, Sciences Po.
    9. Haithem Ben Hassine & Claude Mathieu, 2021. "Price and quality competitiveness across OECD countries: An approach to quality by R&D expenditure," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(8), pages 2344-2382, August.
    10. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/4v8c8tnfgu8g392dpm6uaefuus is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Hartwig, Jochen, 2020. "Not Evidence for Baumol’s Cost Disease. A Reply to Atanda and Reed (International Journal for Re-Views in Empirical Economics, 2020)," International Journal for Re-Views in Empirical Economics (IREE), ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 4(2020-3), pages 1-4.
    12. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/juegcqdoe81pq2u57eide0qm5 is not listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    unit labor costs; exports; competitiveness; heterogeneity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F1 - International Economics - - Trade
    • F4 - International Economics - - Macroeconomic Aspects of International Trade and Finance
    • F16 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade and Labor Market Interactions

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