How firms export: processing vs. ordinary trade with financial frictions

The fragmentation of production across borders allows firms to make and export final goods, or to perform only intermediate stages of production by processing imported inputs for re-exporting. We examine how financial frictions affect companies' choice between processing and ordinary trade – implicitly a choice of production technology and position in global supply chains – and how this decision affects performance. We exploit matched customs and balance sheet data from China, where exports are classified as ordinary trade, import-and-assembly processing trade (processing firm sources and pays for imported inputs), and pure assembly processing trade (processing firm receives foreign inputs for free). Value added, profits, and profitability rise from pure assembly to processing with imports to ordinary trade. However, more profitable trade regimes require more working capital because they entail higher up-front costs. As a result, credit constraints induce firms to conduct more processing trade and pure assembly in particular and preclude them from pursuing higher value-added, more profitable activities. Financial market imperfections thus impact the organization of production across firms and countries and inform optimal trade and development policy in the presence of global production networks

Bringing the benefits of David to Goliath: special economic zones and institutional improvement

The theory behind special economic zones (SEZs) focuses on their role in overcoming broader policy failings in a country. This paper hypothesizes that the ability of smaller countries to reform more quickly provides a theoretical ‘missing link’ as to how SEZs can assist reform, developing the idea of SEZs as a ‘small country in a large country’. Using a new database, the paper tests this proposition by examining if SEZs have actually been able to spur on institutional improvement in large countries. Results show that SEZs do influence the institutional development of a country, contingent upon prevailing institutional trends

Appropriate Economic Space for Transnational Infrastructural Projects: Gateways, Multimodal Corridors, and Special Economic Zones

This study addresses three questions that arise in Asia when formulating, financing, implementing, and maintaining transnational linkages versus purely domestic connections. Firstly, how is optimal economic space to be defined as a useful starting point? Secondly, how can relevant criteria be developed to define the emerging spatial economy and identify efficient transnational transport networks? Thirdly, what are the main investment opportunities in physical infrastructure that would result in more efficient and effective regional cooperation and integration (making special reference to the potential role of crossborder special economic zones (SEZs) or their equivalents)

Export Processing Zones

Export processing zones (EPZs) are industrial estates that are fenced in for producing manufactured goods for export. In short, they are trade enclaves that import raw materials, process them, and then export to the world market. The development of EPZs is justified by a number of motivations: to generate employment, to produce foreign exchange earnings, to promote exports, to provide a catalyst effect on local firms about how to export to the world market, to use trade enclaves to diffuse knowledge, know-how and management skills to local firms, and to stimulate industrial development in the host country. Epzs are created under specific circumstances–developing countries have abundant labor resources, while capital becomes mobile in the global economy. The combination of labor and capital in EPZs provides a chance for developing countries to absorb foreign direct investment (FDI) and be linked to the global economy with the minimum impact on the domestic economy, as the goods produced in EPZs are exported. WTO rules are against subsides for export, which requires the phasing out of EPZs’ tax incentives. Some EPZs are taking this chance to evolve into industrial and science parks and beginning to integrate with their local economies

Cambodia's Special Economic Zones

This study examines the role of special economic zones (SEZs) within the trade policy of Cambodia. It asks whether Cambodia's establishment of SEZs since late 2005 has been successful, based on the evidence to date, and analyzes the appropriate role and management of SEZs over the next decade or more. The study finds that the SEZs have attracted significant levels of foreign investment into Cambodia that would not have been present otherwise. These investments have created around 68,000 jobs, with equal or better pay and better prospects than the alternatives that would otherwise have existed, raising the economic welfare of the workers concerned. A feature of the Cambodian experience is that the government has left the establishment and management of the zones to private sector developers, avoiding the large and sometimes wasteful public sector set up costs associated with SEZ establishment in many other countries