IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/rdevec/v19y2015i2p375-386.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Internet Technology and the Extensive Margin of Trade: Evidence from eBay in Emerging Economies

Author

Listed:
  • Andreas Lendle
  • Pierre-Louis Vézina

Abstract

Online platforms such as eBay offer technologies that make it easier for firms to export. This paper dissects a new firm-level dataset that covers sales made through eBay by sellers based in 21 emerging economies to provide a new lens through which to look at the effect of trade costs on the extensive margin of trade. Comparing eBay sellers with “offline” firm-level data from the World Bank's Exporter Dynamics Database allows us to test whether the observed trade patterns on eBay fit with the trade-liberalization predictions of heterogeneous-firm models. We find that eBay firms export to more destinations, suggesting low destination-specific fixed costs on eBay. We then show that the distribution of export destinations across eBay sellers is well approximated by a balls-and-bins model of frictionless trade, suggesting eBay indeed lowers fixed export costs. Finally, we compare the gravity of eBay with that of offline trade and find geographic distance, languages, and trade agreements to matter less for online trade.

Suggested Citation

  • Andreas Lendle & Pierre-Louis Vézina, 2015. "Internet Technology and the Extensive Margin of Trade: Evidence from eBay in Emerging Economies," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(2), pages 375-386, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:rdevec:v:19:y:2015:i:2:p:375-386
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/rode.12148
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Maris Goldmanis & Ali Hortaçsu & Chad Syverson & Önsel Emre, 2010. "E-Commerce and the Market Structure of Retail Industries," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 120(545), pages 651-682, June.
    2. Roc Armenter & Mikl?s Koren, 2014. "A Balls-and-Bins Model of Trade," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(7), pages 2127-2151, July.
    3. Olarreaga, Marcelo & Lendle, Andreas & Vezina, Pierre-Louis & Schropp, Simon, 2012. "There goes gravity: how eBay reduces trade costs," CEPR Discussion Papers 9094, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    4. Dutt, Pushan & Mihov, Ilian & Van Zandt, Timothy, 2013. "The effect of WTO on the extensive and the intensive margins of trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(2), pages 204-219.
    5. Thierry Mayer & Gianmarco Ottaviano, 2008. "The Happy Few: The Internationalisation of European Firms," Intereconomics: Review of European Economic Policy, Springer;ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics;Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), vol. 43(3), pages 135-148, May.
    6. 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.
    7. Timothy J. Kehoe & Kim J. Ruhl, 2013. "How Important Is the New Goods Margin in International Trade?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 121(2), pages 358-392.
    8. Hillberry, Russell & Hummels, David, 2008. "Trade responses to geographic frictions: A decomposition using micro-data," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(3), pages 527-550, April.
    9. James E. Anderson & Eric van Wincoop, 2003. "Gravity with Gravitas: A Solution to the Border Puzzle," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(1), pages 170-192, March.
    10. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/10147 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Baier, Scott L. & Bergstrand, Jeffrey H. & Feng, Michael, 2014. "Economic integration agreements and the margins of international trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(2), pages 339-350.
    12. Marc J. Melitz, 2003. "The Impact of Trade on Intra-Industry Reallocations and Aggregate Industry Productivity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 71(6), pages 1695-1725, November.
    13. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/10147 is not listed on IDEAS
    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. Sally Murray, 2017. "New technologies create opportunities," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2017-156, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    2. Jaime DE MELO & Marcelo OLARREAGA, 2017. "Trade Related Institutions and Development," Working Papers P199, FERDI.
    3. Pham Hoang Linh & Nguyen Khanh Doanh & Nguyen Ngoc Quynh, 2019. "Determinants of Vietnam`s potential trade: a case study of agricultural exports to the European Union," Asian Journal of Agriculture and rural Development, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 9(1), pages 33-46, June.
    4. Linh, Pham Hoang & Doanh, Nguyen Khanh & Quynh, Nguyen Ngoc, 2019. "Determinants of Vietnam's Potential Trade: A Case Study of Agricultural Exports to the European Union," Asian Journal of Agriculture and Rural Development, Asian Economic and Social Society (AESS), vol. 9(01), January.
    5. Poole Jennifer P. & Volpe Martincus Christian, 2023. "Can Online Platforms Promote Women-Led Exporting Firms?," Journal of Globalization and Development, De Gruyter, vol. 14(2), pages 357-384, December.
    6. Visser, Robin, 2019. "The effect of the internet on the margins of trade," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 41-54.
    7. Sun, Meng, 2021. "The Internet and SME Participation in Exports," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    8. Sally Murray, 2017. "New technologies create opportunities," WIDER Working Paper Series 156, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    9. Volpe Martincus, Christian & Sztajerowska, Monika & Santi, Mariana Belén, 2024. "Consumers and Firms in International Trade," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 13558, Inter-American Development Bank.
    10. Shuzhong Ma & Xueyao Guo & Hongsheng Zhang, 2021. "New driving force for China’s import growth: Assessing the role of cross‐border e‐commerce," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(12), pages 3674-3706, December.

    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. Machado, José A.F. & Santos Silva, J.M.C. & Wei, Kehai, 2016. "Quantiles, corners, and the extensive margin of trade," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 73-84.
    2. Head, Keith & Mayer, Thierry, 2014. "Gravity Equations: Workhorse,Toolkit, and Cookbook," Handbook of International Economics, in: Gopinath, G. & Helpman, . & Rogoff, K. (ed.), Handbook of International Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 0, pages 131-195, Elsevier.
    3. Cheong, Juyoung, 2023. "Do preferential trade agreements stimulate high-tech exports for low-income countries?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    4. Balazs Murakozy & Gabor Bekes, 2009. "Temporary Trade," CERS-IE WORKING PAPERS 0909, Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies.
    5. Békés, Gábor & Muraközy, Balázs, 2012. "Temporary trade and heterogeneous firms," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(2), pages 232-246.
    6. Rebecca Freeman & Samuel Pienknagura, 2019. "Are all trade agreements equal? The role of distance in shaping the effect of economic integration agreements on trade flows," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 155(2), pages 257-285, May.
    7. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/dambferfb7dfprc9m01g1j1k2 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Jonathan Eaton & Ana Cecília Fieler, 2019. "The Margins of Trade," NBER Working Papers 26124, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/dambferfb7dfprc9m01g1j1k2 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Andrew B. Bernard & J. Bradford Jensen & Stephen J. Redding & Peter K. Schott, 2018. "Global Firms," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 56(2), pages 565-619, June.
    11. Kohn, David & Leibovici, Fernando & Szkup, Michal, 2020. "Financial frictions and export dynamics in large devaluations," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    12. Katharina Längle, 2020. "Upgrading of Exports: Does the Integration into Trade Agreements Pave the Way to Product Upgrading?," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 20006, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne.
    13. Nicholas Sheard, 2014. "Learning to Export and the Timing of Entry to Export Markets," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(3), pages 536-560, August.
    14. Rod Falvey & Neil Foster-McGregor, 2022. "The breadth of preferential trade agreements and the margins of exports," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 158(1), pages 181-251, February.
    15. Roc Armenter & Mikl?s Koren, 2014. "A Balls-and-Bins Model of Trade," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(7), pages 2127-2151, July.
    16. Steven Husted & Shuichiro Nishioka, 2015. "Productivity growth and new market entry," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 151(4), pages 687-712, November.
    17. Raphael A. Auer, 2013. "Product Heterogeneity, Cross-Country Taste Differences, and the Consumption Home Bias," Working Papers 13.01, Swiss National Bank, Study Center Gerzensee.
    18. Clémence Lenoir & Julien Martin & Isabelle Mejean, 2023. "Search Frictions in International Goods Markets," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 21(1), pages 326-366.
    19. Fontanelli, Luca & Guerini, Mattia & Napoletano, Mauro, 2023. "International trade and technological competition in markets with dynamic increasing returns," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    20. Harrigan, James & Ma, Xiangjun & Shlychkov, Victor, 2015. "Export prices of U.S. firms," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(1), pages 100-111.
    21. Roc Armenter & Miklós Koren, 2015. "Economies Of Scale And The Size Of Exporters," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 13(3), pages 482-511, June.
    22. Raphael Auer, 2009. "Product Heterogeneity, Within-Industry Trade Patterns, and the Home Bias of Consumption?," Working Papers 09.05, Swiss National Bank, Study Center Gerzensee.

    More about this item

    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:bla:rdevec:v:19:y:2015:i:2:p:375-386. 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: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=1363-6669 .

    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.