German Firms in International Trade: Evidence from Recent Microdata

Fauth Matthias (), Jung Benjamin () and Kohler Wilhelm ()
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Fauth Matthias: Institute for Applied Economic Research (IAW), University of Hohenheim, Tübingen, Germany
Jung Benjamin: University of Hohenheim, IAW, CESifo, Stuttgart, Germany
Kohler Wilhelm: University of Tübingen, IAW, CESifo, Tübingen, Germany

Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), 2023, vol. 243, issue 3-4, 199-284

Abstract: In this paper, we zoom in on the firm level of German merchandise foreign trade, using a novel data base with information on the export and import value by firm, country, product and year for the period 2011–2019. Problems arising from the consolidated reporting of taxable entities and the reporting thresholds present in intra-EU trade have been largely eliminated through redistributions conducted by DESTATIS. Using the data, we examine how global German firms are by looking at the joint distribution of the number of products they trade and the number of countries they trade with. Moreover, we examine the importance of firms mainly engaged in trade intermediation, as opposed to production. Most importantly, we provide a rich description of heterogeneity among German firms by decomposing their trade relationships into intensive margins (value of trade) and extensive margins (number of firms, products and countries). We describe the distributions for each margin, distinguishing intra-EU and extra-EU trade as well as different firm types (producers, wholesalers, retailers). Finally, we reveal strong positive correlations between and within importing and exporting margins, supporting the presence of firm-level complementarities implied by recent theory.

Keywords: firm-level data; Germany; trade intermediation; trade statistics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F14 F23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:jns:jbstat:v:243:y:2023:i:3-4:p:199-284:n:5

DOI: 10.1515/jbnst-2022-0040

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