IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ces/ceswps/_5899.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Making (Small) Firms Happy. The Heterogeneous Effect of Trade Facilitation Measures

Author

Listed:
  • Lionel Gérard Fontagné
  • Gianluca Orefice
  • Roberta Piermartini

Abstract

This paper considers the asymmetric effect of Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) policies on heterogeneous exporters, based on matching a detailed panel of French firm exports to a new database of Trade Facilitation Indicators (TFIs) released recently by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). We analyze the effect of these TFIs on three trade-related outcomes: (i) exported value (firm intensive margin), (ii) number of products exported (product extensive margin) and (iii) average export value per product exported (product intensive margin). We find strong evidence of a heterogeneous effect of trade facilitation across firm size. While better information availability, advance ruling and appeal procedures mainly benefit small firms, the simplification of documents and automation tend to favor large firms’ trade. This is coherent with the idea that while some elements of the TFA simply reduce the fixed cost of exporting (favoring small firms in particular), other chapters in the TFA reduce the scope for corruption at borders, making large firms less reluctant to serve corrupt countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Lionel Gérard Fontagné & Gianluca Orefice & Roberta Piermartini, 2016. "Making (Small) Firms Happy. The Heterogeneous Effect of Trade Facilitation Measures," CESifo Working Paper Series 5899, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_5899
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo1_wp5899.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David L. Hummels & Georg Schaur, 2013. "Time as a Trade Barrier," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(7), pages 2935-2959, December.
    2. Sequeira, Sandra & Djankov, Simeon, 2013. "Corruption and firm behavior," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 54321, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Sequeira, Sandra & Djankov, Simeon, 2014. "Corruption and firm behavior: Evidence from African ports," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(2), pages 277-294.
    4. De Sousa, José & Disdier, Anne-Célia & Gaigné, Carl, 2020. "Export decision under risk," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    5. Antoine Berthou & Lionel Fontagné, 2016. "Variable Trade Costs, Composition Effects and the Intensive Margin of Trade," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(1), pages 54-71, January.
    6. Ana Margarida Fernandes & Russell Hillberry & Alejandra Mendoza Alcántara, 2021. "Trade Effects of Customs Reform: Evidence from Albania," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 35(1), pages 34-57.
    7. Thomas Chaney, 2008. "Distorted Gravity: The Intensive and Extensive Margins of International Trade," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(4), pages 1707-1721, September.
    8. James E. Anderson & Eric van Wincoop, 2004. "Trade Costs," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 42(3), pages 691-751, September.
    9. Pushan Dutt & Daniel Traca, 2010. "Corruption and Bilateral Trade Flows: Extortion or Evasion?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 92(4), pages 843-860, November.
    10. Fontagné, Lionel & Orefice, Gianluca & Piermartini, Roberta & Rocha, Nadia, 2015. "Product standards and margins of trade: Firm-level evidence," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(1), pages 29-44.
    11. A. Smith, Jeffrey & E. Todd, Petra, 2005. "Does matching overcome LaLonde's critique of nonexperimental estimators?," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 125(1-2), pages 305-353.
    12. 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.
    13. Badi Baltagi & Peter Egger, 2016. "Estimation of structural gravity quantile regression models," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 50(1), pages 5-15, February.
    14. Hornok, Cecília & Koren, Miklós, 2015. "Administrative barriers to trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(S1), pages 110-122.
    15. 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.
    16. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/6apm7lruv088iagm4rv2c33jtg is not listed on IDEAS
    17. repec:cii:cepiei:2012-q2-130-5 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Melitz, Marc J. & Redding, Stephen J., 2014. "Heterogeneous Firms and Trade," Handbook of International Economics, in: Gopinath, G. & Helpman, . & Rogoff, K. (ed.), Handbook of International Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 0, pages 1-54, Elsevier.
    19. Couttenier, Mathieu & Hatte, Sophie, 2016. "Mass media effects on non-governmental organizations," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 57-72.
    20. Houssein Guimbard & Sébastien Jean & Mondher Mimouni & Xavier Pichot, 2012. "MAcMap-HS6 2007, an Exhaustive and Consistent Measure of Applied Protection in 2007," International Economics, CEPII research center, issue 130, pages 99-122.
    21. Head, Keith & Mayer, Thierry & Ries, John, 2010. "The erosion of colonial trade linkages after independence," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(1), pages 1-14, May.
    22. Buono, Ines & Lalanne, Guy, 2012. "The effect of the Uruguay round on the intensive and extensive margins of trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(2), pages 269-283.
    23. Gopinath, G. & Helpman, . & Rogoff, K. (ed.), 2014. "Handbook of International Economics," Handbook of International Economics, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 4, number 4.
    24. Ann Harrison & Jason Scorse, 2022. "Multinationals and Anti-Sweatshop Activism," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Globalization, Firms, and Workers, chapter 13, pages 291-317, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    25. Carballo, Jerónimo & Schaur, Georg & Graziano, Alejandro & Volpe Martincus, Christian, 2016. "Transit Trade," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 7688, Inter-American Development Bank.
    26. Patrik Karpaty & Patrik Tingvall, 2015. "Service Offshoring and Corruption: Do Firms Escape Corrupt Countries?," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 15(4), pages 363-381, December.
    27. Spearot, Alan C., 2013. "Variable demand elasticities and tariff liberalization," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(1), pages 26-41.
    28. Rajeev H. Dehejia & Sadek Wahba, 2002. "Propensity Score-Matching Methods For Nonexperimental Causal Studies," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 84(1), pages 151-161, February.
    29. Russell Hillberry & Xiaohui Zhang, 2018. "Policy and performance in customs: Evaluating the trade facilitation agreement," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(2), pages 438-480, May.
    30. Simeon Djankov & Caroline Freund & Cong S. Pham, 2010. "Trading on Time," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 92(1), pages 166-173, February.
    31. Giovanni Maggi & Monika Mrázová & J. Peter Neary, 2022. "Choked By Red Tape? The Political Economy Of Wasteful Trade Barriers," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 63(1), pages 161-188, February.
    32. David P. Baron, 2001. "Private Politics, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Integrated Strategy," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10(1), pages 7-45, March.
    33. Beverelli, Cosimo & Neumueller, Simon & Teh, Robert, 2015. "Export Diversification Effects of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 293-310.
    34. Barbara Sianesi, 2004. "An Evaluation of the Swedish System of Active Labor Market Programs in the 1990s," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 86(1), pages 133-155, February.
    35. Jean, Sébastien & Mitaritonna, Cristina, 2009. "Determinants and pervasiveness of the evasion of custom duties," Conference papers 331896, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    36. Costas Arkolakis, 2010. "Market Penetration Costs and the New Consumers Margin in International Trade," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 118(6), pages 1151-1199.
    37. Robert C. Feenstra & Hong Ma, 2014. "Trade Facilitation and the Extensive Margin of Exports," The Japanese Economic Review, Japanese Economic Association, vol. 65(2), pages 158-177, June.
    38. Allen Dennis & Ben Shepherd, 2011. "Trade Facilitation and Export Diversification," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(1), pages 101-122, January.
    39. Evdokia Moïsé & Silvia Sorescu, 2013. "Trade Facilitation Indicators: The Potential Impact of Trade Facilitation on Developing Countries' Trade," OECD Trade Policy Papers 144, OECD Publishing.
    40. repec:wsr:wpaper:y:2015:i:137 is not listed on IDEAS
    41. Evdokia Moïsé & Thomas Orliac & Peter Minor, 2011. "Trade Facilitation Indicators: The Impact on Trade Costs," OECD Trade Policy Papers 118, OECD Publishing.
    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. Sonali Chowdhry & Gabriel Felbermayr, 2023. "Trade liberalization along the firm size distribution: The case of the EU‐South Korea FTA," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(5), pages 1751-1792, November.
    2. Charlotte Emlinger & Houssein Guimbard, 2024. "VIP Pass to Markets: When Customs Certification Helps Firms to Face NTMs," Working Papers 2024-11, CEPII research center.
    3. Vincent Rebeyrol, 2023. "Protection Without Discrimination," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 133(655), pages 2807-2827.
    4. Debashis CHAKRABORTY & Sacchidananda MUKHERJEE, 2016. "How Trade Facilitation Measures influence Export Orientation? Empirical Estimates with Logistics Performance Index Data," Journal of Economics Library, KSP Journals, vol. 3(4), pages 554-569, December.
    5. Christian Volpe Martincus, 2016. "Out of the Border Labyrinth: An Assessment of Trade Facilitation Initiatives in Latin America and the Caribbean," IDB Publications (Books), Inter-American Development Bank, number 96856, February.
    6. Aggarwal, Sakshi & Chakraborty, Debashis, 2017. "Determinants of India’s Bilateral Intra-Industry Trade over 2001-15: Empirical Results," MPRA Paper 78020, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Olarreaga, Marcelo & Fugazza, Marco & Ugarte, Cristian, 2018. "On the heterogeneous effects of market access barriers: evidence from small and large Peruvian exporters," CEPR Discussion Papers 12876, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    8. Lee,Woori & Rocha Gaffurri,Nadia Patrizia & Ruta,Michele, 2021. "Trade Facilitation Provisions in Preferential Trade Agreements : Impact on Peru’s Exporters," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9674, The World Bank.
    9. Beverelli, Cosimo & Ticku, Rohit, 2022. "Reducing tariff evasion: The role of trade facilitation," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 534-554.
    10. Jerónimo Carballo & Georg Schaur & Christian Volpe Martincus, 2018. "Transportation and trade interactions: a trade facilitation perspective," Chapters, in: Bruce A. Blonigen & Wesley W. Wilson (ed.), Handbook of International Trade and Transportation, chapter 14, pages 422-450, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    11. Alessandro Nicita & Enxhi Tresa, 2022. "Trade policy and trade resilience during the 2020 trade downturn," UNCTAD Working Papers #1, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
    12. Fiankor, Dela-Dem Doe & Dalheimer, Bernhard & Mack, Gabriele, 2024. "Pesticide Regulatory Heterogeneity, Foreign Sourcing, and Global Agricultural Value Chains," 2024 Annual Meeting, July 28-30, New Orleans, LA 343952, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    13. Giovanni Maggi & Monika Mrázová & J. Peter Neary, 2022. "Choked By Red Tape? The Political Economy Of Wasteful Trade Barriers," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 63(1), pages 161-188, February.
    14. Beverelli, Cosimo & Gourevich, Isabella & Heiland, Inga & Keck, Alexander & Larch, Mario & Yotov, Yoto, 2023. "Trade and welfare effects of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement," WTO Staff Working Papers ERSD-2023-04, World Trade Organization (WTO), Economic Research and Statistics Division.
    15. Russell Hillberry & Carlos Zurita, 2022. "Commitment behaviour in the World Trade Organization's Trade Facilitation Agreement," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(1), pages 36-75, January.
    16. Ben Shepherd, 2022. "Modelling global value chains: From trade costs to policy impacts," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(8), pages 2478-2509, August.
    17. Jerónimo Carballo & Georg Schaur & Christian Volpe Martincus, 2017. "Transportation and Trade Interactions: A Trade Facilitation Perspective," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 97957, Inter-American Development Bank.
    18. Hendy, Rana & Zaki, Chahir, 2021. "Trade facilitation and firms exports: Evidence from customs data," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 197-209.
    19. Volpe Martincus, Christian, 2016. "Out of the Border Labyrinth: An Assessment of Trade Facilitation Initiatives in Latin America and the Caribbean," IDB Publications (Books), Inter-American Development Bank, number 7994, November.
    20. Mamta Kumari & Nalin Bharti, 2021. "Linkages Between Trade Facilitation and Governance: Relevance for Post-COVID-19 Trade Strategy," Millennial Asia, , vol. 12(2), pages 162-189, August.
    21. Kemal Türkcan & Socrates Kraido Majune, 2022. "Logistics infrastructure and export survival in European Union countries," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 49(2), pages 509-535, May.

    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. Beverelli, Cosimo & Neumueller, Simon & Teh, Robert, 2015. "Export Diversification Effects of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 293-310.
    2. Imad Kareem Alaamshani & Hanny Zurina Hamzah & Shivee Ranjanee Kaliappan & Normaz Wana Ismail, 2021. "Impact of Trade Facilitation on Extensive Margin," Economic Studies journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 4, pages 131-147.
    3. Bas, Maria & Mayer, Thierry & Thoenig, Mathias, 2017. "From micro to macro: Demand, supply, and heterogeneity in the trade elasticity," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 1-19.
    4. Volpe Martincus, Christian, 2016. "Out of the Border Labyrinth: An Assessment of Trade Facilitation Initiatives in Latin America and the Caribbean," IDB Publications (Books), Inter-American Development Bank, number 7994, November.
    5. Beverelli, Cosimo & Neumüller, Simon & Teh, Robert, 2014. "A new look at the extensive trade margin effects of trade facilitation," WTO Staff Working Papers ERSD-2014-16, World Trade Organization (WTO), Economic Research and Statistics Division.
    6. Christian Volpe Martincus, 2016. "Out of the Border Labyrinth: An Assessment of Trade Facilitation Initiatives in Latin America and the Caribbean," IDB Publications (Books), Inter-American Development Bank, number 96856, February.
    7. repec:wsr:wpaper:y:2015:i:137 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Krolikowski, Pawel M. & McCallum, Andrew H., 2021. "Goods-market frictions and international trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    9. Jaime DE MELO & Ben SHEPHERD, 2018. "The Economics of Non-Tariff Measures: A Primer," Working Papers P212, FERDI.
    10. Fontagné, Lionel & Martin, Philippe & Orefice, Gianluca, 2018. "The international elasticity puzzle is worse than you think," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 115-129.
    11. Wim Naudé & Martin Cameron, 2021. "Export-Led Growth after COVID-19: The Case of Portugal," Notas Económicas, Faculty of Economics, University of Coimbra, issue 52, pages 7-53, July.
    12. Fontagné, Lionel & Orefice, Gianluca & Piermartini, Roberta & Rocha, Nadia, 2015. "Product standards and margins of trade: Firm-level evidence," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(1), pages 29-44.
    13. Anderson, James E. & Yotov, Yoto V., 2020. "Short run gravity," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    14. Costinot, Arnaud & Rodríguez-Clare, Andrés, 2014. "Trade Theory with Numbers: Quantifying the Consequences of Globalization," Handbook of International Economics, in: Gopinath, G. & Helpman, . & Rogoff, K. (ed.), Handbook of International Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 0, pages 197-261, Elsevier.
    15. Céline Carrère & Monika Mrázová & J Peter Neary, 2020. "Gravity Without Apology: the Science of Elasticities, Distance and Trade," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 130(628), pages 880-910.
    16. Lionel Fontagné & Gianluca Orefice & Roberta Piermartini & Nadia Rocha, 2015. "Product Standards and Margins of Trade: Firm-Level Evidence Product Standards and Margins of Trade: Firm-Level Evidence," Post-Print hal-01299757, HAL.
    17. Flach, Lisandra & Unger, Florian, 2022. "Quality and gravity in international trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    18. Neary, Peter & Carrère, Céline & Mrázová, Monika, 2020. "Gravity without Apologies: The Science of Elasticities, Distance, and Trade," CEPR Discussion Papers 14473, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    19. Harald Oberhofer & Michael Pfaffermayr & Richard Sellner, 2021. "Revisiting time as a trade barrier: Evidence from a panel structural gravity model," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(5), pages 1382-1417, November.
    20. Sonali Chowdhry & Gabriel Felbermayr, 2023. "Trade liberalization along the firm size distribution: The case of the EU‐South Korea FTA," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(5), pages 1751-1792, November.
    21. repec:idb:brikps:7994 is not listed on IDEAS
    22. (ed.), 0. "Research Handbook on Economic Diplomacy," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 16053.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    trade facilitation; heterogeneous firms; extensive margin; intensive margin;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations
    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade

    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:ces:ceswps:_5899. 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: Klaus Wohlrabe (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cesifde.html .

    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.