IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/red/sed006/796.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Imports and Productivity

Author

Listed:
  • Laszlo Halpern

    (Macroeconomics Institute of Economics of Hungarian Academy of Sciences)

  • Miklos Koren
  • Adam Szeidl

Abstract

What is the effect of imports on productivity? To answer this question, we estimate a structural model of producers using product-level import data for a panel of Hungarian manufacturing firms from 1992 to 2001. In our model with heterogenous firms, producers choose to import or purchase domestically varieties of intermediate inputs. Imports affect firm productivity through expanding variety as well as improved input quality. The model leads to a production function where the total factor productivity of a firm depends on the share of inputs imported. To estimate this import-augmented production function, we extend the Olley and Pakes (1996) procedure for a setting with an additional state variable, the number of input varieties imported. Our results suggest that the role of imports is both statistically and economically significant. Imports are responsible for 30% of the growth in aggregate total factor productivity in Hungary during the 1990s. About 50% of this effect is through imports advancing firm level productivity, while the remaining 50% comes from the reallocation of capital and labor to importers.

Suggested Citation

  • Laszlo Halpern & Miklos Koren & Adam Szeidl, 2006. "Imports and Productivity," 2006 Meeting Papers 796, Society for Economic Dynamics.
  • Handle: RePEc:red:sed006:796
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://miklos.koren.hu/research/imports
    File Function: main text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bernard, Andrew B. & Bradford Jensen, J., 1999. "Exceptional exporter performance: cause, effect, or both?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 1-25, February.
    2. László Halpern & Miklós Koren, 2007. "Pricing to Firm: an Analysis of Firm‐ and Product‐level Import Prices," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(3), pages 574-591, August.
    3. Coe, David T. & Helpman, Elhanan, 1995. "International R&D spillovers," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 39(5), pages 859-887, May.
    4. David H. Romer & Jeffrey A. Frankel, 1999. "Does Trade Cause Growth?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(3), pages 379-399, June.
    5. Mary Amiti, 2000. "Trade Liberalisation of Intermediate Inputs," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 33(4), pages 299-302, December.
    6. Mary Amiti & Jozef Konings, 2007. "Trade Liberalization, Intermediate Inputs, and Productivity: Evidence from Indonesia," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(5), pages 1611-1638, December.
    7. Olley, G Steven & Pakes, Ariel, 1996. "The Dynamics of Productivity in the Telecommunications Equipment Industry," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 64(6), pages 1263-1297, November.
    8. Marc-Andreas Muendler, 2004. "Trade, Technology, and Productivity: A Study of Brazilian Manufacturers, 1986-1998," CESifo Working Paper Series 1148, CESifo.
    9. Andrew B. Bernard & J. Bradford Jensen & Peter K. Schott, 2009. "Importers, Exporters and Multinationals: A Portrait of Firms in the U.S. that Trade Goods," NBER Chapters, in: Producer Dynamics: New Evidence from Micro Data, pages 513-552, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. James Levinsohn & Amil Petrin, 2003. "Estimating Production Functions Using Inputs to Control for Unobservables," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 70(2), pages 317-341.
    11. David Hummels & Volodymyr Lugovskyy, 2005. "Trade in Ideal Varieties: Theory and Evidence," NBER Working Papers 11828, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    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. Mitra, Arup & Sharma, Chandan & Véganzonès-Varoudakis, Marie-Ange, 2014. "Trade liberalization, technology transfer, and firms’ productive performance: The case of Indian manufacturing," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 1-15.
    2. Xavier Cirera & Daniel Lederman & Juan A. Máñez Castillejo & María E. Rochina Barrachina & Juan A. Sanchis-Llopis, 2021. "Firm productivity gains in a period of slow trade liberalization: evidence from Brazil," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 38(1), pages 57-87, April.
    3. László Halpern & Miklós Koren & Adam Szeidl, 2015. "Imported Inputs and Productivity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(12), pages 3660-3703, December.
    4. Juan A. Máñez Castillejo & Consuelo Mínguez Bosque & María E. Rochina Barrachina & Juan A. Sanchis Llopis, 2020. "Trading activities, productivity and markups: Evidence for Spanish manufacturing," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(3), pages 644-680, March.
    5. Kasahara, Hiroyuki & Lapham, Beverly, 2013. "Productivity and the decision to import and export: Theory and evidence," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(2), pages 297-316.
    6. Ahn, JaeBin & Choi, Moon Jung, 2020. "From firm-level imports to aggregate productivity: Evidence from Korean manufacturing firm data," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    7. Patricia Augier & Olivier Cadot & Marion Dovis, 2013. "Imports and TFP at the firm level: the role of absorptive capacity," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 46(3), pages 956-981, August.
    8. Maria Bas & Vanessa Strauss-Kahn, 2014. "Does importing more inputs raise exports? Firm-level evidence from France," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 150(2), pages 241-275, May.
    9. Emanuele Forlani, 2017. "Irish Firms’ Productivity and Imported Inputs," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 85(6), pages 710-743, December.
    10. Hansen, Thorsten, 2010. "Tariff Rates, Offshoring and Productivity: Evidence from German and Austrian Firm-Level Data," Discussion Papers in Economics 11465, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    11. Juan A. Máñez & María E. Rochina‐Barrachina & Juan A. Sanchis, 2020. "Foreign sourcing and exporting," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(5), pages 1151-1187, May.
    12. Carol Newman & John Rand & Finn Tarp, 2016. "Imports, supply chains, and firm productivity," Working Paper Series UNU-WIDER Working Paper w, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    13. Juan A. Sanchis Llopis & Silviano Juan A. Mañez Castillejo & Andrés Mauricio Gómez-Sánchez, 2022. "The dynamic linkages between exporting and importing in Colombian manufacturing," Working Papers 2203, Department of Applied Economics II, Universidad de Valencia.
    14. Marco Grazzi & Nanditha Mathew & Daniele Moschella, 2021. "Making one’s own way: jumping ahead in the capability space and exporting among Indian firms," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 31(3), pages 931-957, July.
    15. Mirabelle Muûls & Mauro Pisu, 2009. "Imports and Exports at the Level of the Firm: Evidence from Belgium," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(5), pages 692-734, May.
    16. Francesco Serti & Chiara Tomasi, 2009. "Self-selection along different export and import markets," LEM Papers Series 2009/18, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    17. Sharma, Chandan & Mishra, Ritesh Kumar, 2015. "International trade and performance of firms: Unraveling export, import and productivity puzzle," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 61-74.
    18. Zhang, Hongsong, 2017. "Static and dynamic gains from costly importing of intermediate inputs: Evidence from Colombia," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 118-145.
    19. Kasahara, Hiroyuki & Rodrigue, Joel, 2008. "Does the use of imported intermediates increase productivity? Plant-level evidence," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 106-118, August.
    20. Andrés Mauricio Gómez‐Sánchez & Juan A. Mañez & Juan A. Sanchis‐Llopis, 2022. "Are importing and exporting complements or substitutes in an emerging economy? The case of Colombia," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(3), pages 819-835, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    imports; intermediate inputs; productivity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F12 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Models of Trade with Imperfect Competition and Scale Economies; Fragmentation
    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • L25 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Performance

    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:red:sed006:796. 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: Christian Zimmermann (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/sedddea.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.