Effects of Intermediate Input Tariff Reduction on Innovations in China

Qing Liu and Larry Qiu
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Qing Liu: University of International Business and Economics

No 22017, Working Papers from Hong Kong Institute for Monetary Research

Abstract: Innovation plays a key role in economic growth. In this paper, we investigate the effects of intermediate input tariff reduction on the innovation activities of domestic firms. Input tariff reduction has two opposite effects on the innovation decision of a firm: it may promote innovation because the cost of innovation activities decreases, but it may also result in a decrease in innovation because foreign technologies become cheaper. We use Chinese firm-level data from 1998 to 2007, which features a drastic input tariff cut in 2002 because of China's WTO accession, and find that input tariff cut results in less innovation undertaken by Chinese firms. The findings are obtained using the difference-in-differences technique and are robust to various specifications checks of the model. We also provide a theoretical framework to generate insights to the empirical findings.

Keywords: Trade liberalization; Intermediate Input; Innovation; Patent (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F13 F15 O14 O31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 53 pages
Date: 2017-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cna, nep-ino, nep-int, nep-tid and nep-tra
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