Does the Use of Imported Intermediates Increase Productivity? Plant-Level Evidence

Hiroyuki Kasahara and Joel Rodrigue

No 20057, University of Western Ontario, Economic Policy Research Institute Working Papers from University of Western Ontario, Economic Policy Research Institute

Abstract: This paper examines whether importing intermediate goods improves plant performance. While addressing the issue of simultaneity of a productivity shock and the decision to import intermediates, we estimate the impact of the use of foreign intermediates on plants' productivity using plant-level Chilean manufacturing panel data. We found that switching from being a non- importer to being an importer of foreign intermediates can improve productivity by 2.3 to 22.0 percent. We also investigate the plant dynamic decisions to import, invest, and exit. The results show that having imported last year substantially increases the probability of importing this year, providing the evidence for sunk start-up costs of importing. We also found that importers accumulate more capital and are less likely to exit than non-importers, which indicates that importing intermediates may play an important role in reallocating resources across heterogeneous plants.

Keywords: productivity; imported intermediates; plant-level (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D21 D24 F10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eff and nep-int
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (27)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Does the use of imported intermediates increase productivity? Plant-level evidence (2008)
Working Paper: Does the Use of Imported Intermediates Increase Productivity? Plant-Level Evidence (2004)
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