Intranational trade costs, product scope and productivity: Evidence from India's Golden Quadrilateral project

Ama Abeberese and Mary Chen

Journal of Development Economics, 2022, vol. 156, issue C

Abstract: We examine the potential for a reduction in intranational trade costs to increase firm pro-ductivity. Recent trade theories highlight a channel through which this increase may occur – a reduction in trade costs increases competition and leads firms to drop the products in which they are least efficient. We provide empirical evidence for this prediction in the context of an exogenous reduction in intranational trade costs induced by a highway construction project in India. We find that product scope falls and firm productivity rises in response to the construction of the highway. We also find that the products dropped are those that account for the lowest shares of the firm's output.

Keywords: Firms and development; Intranational trade; Productivity; Transportation in-frastructure (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H54 L25 O12 O14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:deveco:v:156:y:2022:i:c:s0304387821001486

DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2021.102791

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