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How Wide Is the Firm Border?

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  • Enghin Atalay
  • Ali Hortaçsu
  • Mary Jialin Li
  • Chad Syverson

Abstract

We examine the within- and across-firm shipment decisions of tens of thousands of goods-producing and goods-distributing establishments. This allows us to quantify the normally unobservable forces that determine firm boundaries, that is, which transactions are mediated by ownership control, as opposed to contracts or markets. We find firm boundaries to be an economically significant barrier to trade: having an additional vertically integrated establishment in a given destination ZIP code has the same effect on shipment volumes as a 40% reduction in distance. These effects are larger for high value-to-weight products, faraway destinations, differentiated products, and IT-intensive industries.

Suggested Citation

  • Enghin Atalay & Ali Hortaçsu & Mary Jialin Li & Chad Syverson, 2019. "How Wide Is the Firm Border?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 134(4), pages 1845-1882.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:qjecon:v:134:y:2019:i:4:p:1845-1882.
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    Cited by:

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    3. Adelaide Baronchelli & Raul Caruso, 2023. "Italian small arms exports: between incentives and international sanctions," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 40(3), pages 1075-1106, October.
    4. Philippe Choné & Laurent Linnemer & Thibaud Vergé, 2021. "Double Marginalization and Vertical Integration," CESifo Working Paper Series 8971, CESifo.
    5. Jean Imbs & Laurent L. Pauwels, 2020. "High Order Openness," Working Papers 20200047, New York University Abu Dhabi, Department of Social Science, revised Jun 2020.
    6. John (Jianqiu) Bai, 2021. "Organizational Form and Trade Liberalization: Plant-Level Evidence," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(12), pages 7755-7784, December.
    7. Adelaide Baronchelli & Raul Caruso & Roberto Ricciuti, 2022. "Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons: Are embargoes effective?," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(5), pages 1336-1361, May.
    8. CHEN Cheng & SUN Chang & ZHANG Hongyong, 2023. "Production and Ownership Networks," Discussion papers 23039, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    9. Youngho Kang & Jeongmeen Suh, 2022. "Information technology and the spatial reorganization of firms," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(3), pages 674-692, August.
    10. Basker, Emek & Kamal, Fariha, 2021. "Recall and response: Relationship adjustments to adverse information shocks," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
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    12. Michele Fioretti & Junnan He & Jorge Tamayo, 2024. "Prices and Concentration: A U-shape? Theory and Evidence from Renewables," Papers 2407.03504, arXiv.org.
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    14. Gil, Ricard & Kim, Myongjin, 2021. "Does competition increase quality? Evidence from the US airline industry," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D2 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations
    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • L2 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior

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