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Multinational exposure, export variety and price: Evidence from Chinese electronics exporters

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  • Yang, Chih-Hai
  • Tsou, Meng-Wen

Abstract

Using a matched firm-transaction dataset on the electronics industry in China, we provide one of the first attempts to examine whether foreign direct investment (FDI) has direct impacts on the export prospects of domestic firms, in terms of export variety and unit price. Using measures of multinational presence constructed at region and industry levels, our results reveal little evidence of multinational spillovers arising from an increase in the export variety of domestic firms. The growing presence of multinational firms has a strongly negative association with the export unit value of domestic firms, suggesting that exposure to multinational firms may intensify the competition in the product market and force local firms to offer lower-value products in the international markets. This adverse influence is mainly driven by processing trade as opposed to ordinary trade, with private firms being less affected by export spillovers than state-owned enterprises. We also find that the productivity of firms can mitigate the negative effect of the exposure to multinational firms on the unit value of exports.

Suggested Citation

  • Yang, Chih-Hai & Tsou, Meng-Wen, 2015. "Multinational exposure, export variety and price: Evidence from Chinese electronics exporters," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 93-110.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:jjieco:v:38:y:2015:i:c:p:93-110
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jjie.2015.05.008
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    Cited by:

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    2. Bastos, Paulo & Silva, Joana, 2010. "The quality of a firm's exports: Where you export to matters," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(2), pages 99-111, November.
    3. Chih-Hai Yang & Meng-Wen Tsou, 2020. "Globalization and firm growth: does ownership matter?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 55(4), pages 1019-1037, December.
    4. Prema-chandra Athukorala, 2017. "China's evolving role in global production networks: implications for Trump's trade war," Departmental Working Papers 2017-08, The Australian National University, Arndt-Corden Department of Economics.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Export spillovers; Export variety; Export quality; Unit values; FDI;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F1 - International Economics - - Trade
    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade

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