IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/gre/wpaper/2020-45.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Adjusting to China Competition: Evidence from Japanese Plant-product-level Data

Author

Listed:
  • Flora Bellone

    (Université Côte d'Azur
    GREDEG CNRS)

  • Cilem Selin Hazir

    (Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development)

  • Toshiyuki Matsuura

    (Keio Economic Observatory, Keio University)

Abstract

This study examines how the product mixes of Japanese manufacturing plants have been impacted by the rise of China imports over the period 1997-2014, and the extent that plants' local embeddedness mitigate this causal relationship. We find evidence that China import competition induced both product downsizing and product exit within Japanese manufacturing plants. Moreover, we find that those negative effects differ across plants according to various plant characteristics including the spatial organization of their parent firm. Finally, we show that both product survival and product sales are positively impacted by external agglomeration economies, but these effects are strong for standalone plants only, and almost non-existent for plants affiliated to spatially compact multi-unit firms.

Suggested Citation

  • Flora Bellone & Cilem Selin Hazir & Toshiyuki Matsuura, 2020. "Adjusting to China Competition: Evidence from Japanese Plant-product-level Data," GREDEG Working Papers 2020-45, Groupe de REcherche en Droit, Economie, Gestion (GREDEG CNRS), Université Côte d'Azur, France.
    • Handle: RePEc:gre:wpaper:2020-45
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://195.220.190.85/GREDEG-WP-2020-45.pdf
    File Function: First version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Behrens, Kristian & Sharunova, Vera, 2015. "Inter- and intra-firm linkages: Evidence from microgeographic location patterns," CEPR Discussion Papers 10921, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. Ito, Tadashi & Aoyagi, Takahide, 2019. "Did the least developed countries benefit from duty-free quota-free access to the Japanese market?," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 32-39.
    3. Youngmin BAEK & HAYAKAWA Kazunobu & TSUBOTA Kenmei & URATA Shujiro & YAMANOUCHI Kenta, 2019. "Tariff Pass-through in Wholesaling: Evidence from Firm-level Data in Japan," Discussion papers 19064, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    4. Fontagné, Lionel & Secchi, Angelo & Tomasi, Chiara, 2018. "Exporters’ product vectors across markets," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 150-180.
    5. Sandra Poncet & Felipe Starosta de Waldemar, 2015. "Product Relatedness and Firm Exports in China," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 29(3), pages 579-605.
    6. Hale Utar, 2014. "When the Floodgates Open: "Northern" Firms' Response to Removal of Trade Quotas on Chinese Goods," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 6(4), pages 226-250, October.
    7. Runjuan Liu, 2010. "Import competition and firm refocusing," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 43(2), pages 440-466, May.
    8. Bernard, Andrew B. & Jensen, J. Bradford & Schott, Peter K., 2006. "Survival of the best fit: Exposure to low-wage countries and the (uneven) growth of U.S. manufacturing plants," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 219-237, January.
    9. Balsvik, Ragnhild & Jensen, Sissel & Salvanes, Kjell G., 2015. "Made in China, sold in Norway: Local labor market effects of an import shock," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 137-144.
    10. Robert C. Feenstra & Akira Sasahara, 2018. "The ‘China shock,’ exports and U.S. employment: A global input–output analysis," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(5), pages 1053-1083, November.
    11. Cilem Selin Hazir & Flora Bellone & Cyrielle Gaglio, 2019. "Local product space and firm-level churning in exported products," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 28(6), pages 1473-1496.
    12. Lee Branstetter & Ana Venancio & Brian Kovak, 2019. "The China Shock and Portuguese Manufacturing," 2019 Meeting Papers 1051, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    13. Tomiura, Eiichi, 2003. "The impact of import competition on Japanese manufacturing employment," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 118-133, June.
    14. Daron Acemoglu & David Autor & David Dorn & Gordon H. Hanson & Brendan Price, 2016. "Import Competition and the Great US Employment Sag of the 2000s," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 34(S1), pages 141-198.
    15. David H. Autor & David Dorn & Gordon H. Hanson, 2013. "The China Syndrome: Local Labor Market Effects of Import Competition in the United States," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(6), pages 2121-2168, October.
    16. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/1f59r6ssre9eiqb2rso9ui50m2 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Andrew B. BERNARD & OKUBO Toshihiro, 2015. "Product Switching and the Business Cycle," Discussion papers 15103, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    18. Clément Malgouyres, 2017. "The Impact Of Chinese Import Competition On The Local Structure Of Employment And Wages: Evidence From France," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(3), pages 411-441, June.
    19. Iacovone, Leonardo & Rauch, Ferdinand & Winters, L. Alan, 2013. "Trade as an engine of creative destruction: Mexican experience with Chinese competition," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(2), pages 379-392.
    20. Hyun‐Soo Woo & Albert Cannella & Luiz Mesquita, 2019. "How intra‐ and interfirm agglomeration affect new‐unit geographic distance decisions of multiunit firms," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(11), pages 1757-1790, November.
    21. Duc Anh Dang, 2017. "The effects of Chinese import penetration on firm innovation: Evidence from the Vietnamese manufacturing sector," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2017-77, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    22. Ricardo Hausmann & César Hidalgo, 2011. "The network structure of economic output," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 16(4), pages 309-342, December.
    23. Andrew B. Bernard & Stephen J. Redding & Peter K. Schott, 2011. "Multiproduct Firms and Trade Liberalization," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 126(3), pages 1271-1318.
    24. Nicholas Bloom & Andre Kurmann & Kyle Handley & Philip Luck, 2019. "The Impact of Chinese Trade on U.S. Employment: The Good, The Bad, and The Apocryphal," 2019 Meeting Papers 1433, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    25. Mion, Giordano & Zhu, Linke, 2013. "Import competition from and offshoring to China: A curse or blessing for firms?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(1), pages 202-215.
    26. repec:hal:cesptp:hal-01870888 is not listed on IDEAS
    27. Hale Utar, 2018. "Workers beneath the Floodgates: Low-Wage Import Competition and Workers’ Adjustment," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 100(4), pages 631-647, October.
    28. C. A. Hidalgo & B. Klinger & A. -L. Barabasi & R. Hausmann, 2007. "The Product Space Conditions the Development of Nations," Papers 0708.2090, arXiv.org.
    29. Juan Alcácer & Mercedes Delgado, 2016. "Spatial Organization of Firms and Location Choices Through the Value Chain," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(11), pages 3213-3234, November.
    30. Taniguchi, Mina, 2019. "The effect of an increase in imports from China on local labor markets in Japan," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 1-18.
    31. Kristian Behrens & Brahim Boualam & Julien Martin, 2020. "Are clusters resilient? Evidence from Canadian textile industries," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 20(1), pages 1-36.
    32. Ron Boschma & Asier Minondo & Mikel Navarro, 2012. "Related variety and regional growth in Spain," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 91(2), pages 241-256, June.
    33. Runjuan Liu, 2010. "Import competition and firm refocusing," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 43(2), pages 440-466, May.
    34. Martin, Julien & Mejean, Isabelle, 2014. "Low-wage country competition and the quality content of high-wage country exports," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(1), pages 140-152.
    35. Vicente Donoso & V�ctor Mart�n & Asier Minondo, 2015. "Do Differences in the Exposure to Chinese Imports Lead to Differences in Local Labour Market Outcomes? An Analysis for Spanish Provinces," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(10), pages 1746-1764, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Flora Bellone & Cilem Selin Hazir & Toshiyuki Matsuura, 2022. "Adjusting to China competition: Evidence from Japanese plant‐product‐level data," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(3), pages 732-763, August.
    2. Sónia Cabral & Pedro S. Martins & João Pereira dos Santos & Mariana Tavares, 2021. "Collateral Damage? Labour Market Effects of Competing with China—at Home and Abroad," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 88(350), pages 570-600, April.
    3. Chakraborty, Pavel & Henry, Michael, 2019. "Chinese competition and product variety of Indian firms," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 367-395.
    4. Lee Branstetter & Ana Venancio & Brian Kovak, 2019. "The China Shock and Portuguese Manufacturing," 2019 Meeting Papers 1051, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    5. MATSUURA Toshiyuki, 2019. "Heterogeneous Impact of Import Competition on Firm Organization: Evidence from Japanese firm-level data," Discussion papers 19086, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    6. David H. Autor & David Dorn & Gordon H. Hanson, 2016. "The China Shock: Learning from Labor-Market Adjustment to Large Changes in Trade," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 8(1), pages 205-240, October.
    7. Akira Sasahara, 2022. "The Empirics of the China Trade Shock: A Summary of Estimation Methods and A Literature Review," Keio-IES Discussion Paper Series 2022-008, Institute for Economics Studies, Keio University.
    8. Sofia Torreggiani & Antonio Andreoni, 2019. "Dancing with dragons: Chinese import penetration and the performances of manufacturing firms in South Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2019-63, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    9. Taniguchi, Mina, 2019. "The effect of an increase in imports from China on local labor markets in Japan," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 1-18.
    10. Hayakawa, Kazunobu & Ito, Tadashi & Urata, Shujiro, 2021. "Impacts of increased Chinese imports on Japan’s labor market," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    11. Muftah Faraj & Murad Bein, 2022. "Sustainability of Local Labour Market in South Africa: The Implications of Imports Competition from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-18, June.
    12. Benjamin Gampfer & Ingo Geishecker, 2019. "Chinese competition: intra-industry and intra-firm adaptation," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 155(2), pages 327-352, May.
    13. Damoun Ashournia & Jakob MunchDaniel Nguyen, 2014. "The Impact of Chinese Import Penetration on Danish Firms and Workers," Economics Series Working Papers 703, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    14. Zhi, Yan & Bao, Di & Luo, Changyuan, 2019. "The China effect: Evidence from data at firm level in Thailand," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 1-1.
    15. Larry D. Qiu & Chaoqun Zhan, 2016. "Special Section: China's Growing Trade and its Role to the World Economy," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(1), pages 45-71, February.
    16. Torreggiani, Sofia & Andreoni, Antonio, 2023. "Rising to the challenge or perish? Chinese import penetration and its impact on growth dynamics of manufacturing firms in South Africa," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 199-212.
    17. Erling Barth & Henning Finseraas & Anders Kjelsrud & Kalle Moene, 2023. "Hit by the Silk Road: how wage coordination in Europe mitigates the China shock," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 125(1), pages 32-72, January.
    18. Luca Citino & Andrea Linarello, 2022. "The impact of Chinese import competition on Italian manufacturing," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(3), pages 702-731, August.
    19. Benedikt Heid & Raúl Mínguez & Asier Minondo, 2021. "Is competition from China so special?," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(1), pages 64-88, January.
    20. Philippe Aghion & Antonin Bergeaud & Matthieu Lequien & Marc J. Melitz & Thomas Zuber, 2024. "Opposing Firm-Level Responses to the China Shock: Output Competition versus Input Supply," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 16(2), pages 249-269, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Import competition; Product Portfolio; Local Product Relatedness;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F61 - International Economics - - Economic Impacts of Globalization - - - Microeconomic Impacts
    • L25 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Performance
    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:gre:wpaper:2020-45. 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: Patrice Bougette (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/credcfr.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.