Firms' imports and quality upgrading: Evidence from Chinese firms

Min Zhu and Chiara Tomasi

The World Economy, 2020, vol. 43, issue 5, 1371-1397

Abstract: Using transaction‐level data for the Chinese manufacturing sector, this paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the causal effect that firms' imports have on quality upgrading. We implement an empirical strategy that delivers quality estimates at the firm‐product‐destination level. Exploiting this measure and accounting for the endogeneity of imported inputs, this paper shows that sourcing from abroad boosts export quality. Moreover, the analysis indicates that quality improvements are particularly strong when firms purchase inputs from high‐income countries. Taken together, these results provide direct evidence that quality upgrading is an important mechanism through which imports favour firms' export performance.

Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/twec.12934

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:worlde:v:43:y:2020:i:5:p:1371-1397

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=0378-5920

Access Statistics for this article

The World Economy is currently edited by David Greenaway

More articles in The World Economy from Wiley Blackwell
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().