Does input trade liberalization boost downstream firms' exports? Theory and firm-level evidence

Emmanuelle Chevassus-Lozza, Carl Gaigne and Léo Le Mener

Journal of International Economics, 2013, vol. 90, issue 2, 391-402

Abstract: We analyze the impact of input tariffs on the export status and export performance of heterogeneous processing firms. Using a theoretical model with downstream firms exhibiting different levels of productivity, we show that lower input tariffs may increase the export sales of high-productivity firms at the expense of low-productivity firms and may decrease the probability of firms entering foreign markets. We compare the predictions of the theoretical model with firm-level data from the French agrifood sector by developing a two-stage estimation procedure that uses an equation for selection into export markets in the first stage and an export's equation in the second stage. The liberalization of agricultural trade appears to favor the reallocation of market share from low- to high-productivity agrifood firms. In addition, our results suggest that, whether lower input tariffs increase total export sales (and jobs), a large fraction of the least productive exporting firms may lose from an additional decrease in agricultural input tariffs.

Keywords: Input tariffs; Heterogeneous downstream firms; Exports (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F12 L11 L66 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (27)

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Working Paper: Does input trade liberalization boost downstream firms' exports? Theory and firm-level evidence (2013)
Working Paper: Does input trade liberalization boost downstream firms’ exports? Theory and firm-level evidence (2012)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:inecon:v:90:y:2013:i:2:p:391-402

DOI: 10.1016/j.jinteco.2013.02.004

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