Multinationals and the Creation of Chinese Trade Linkages

This paper studies the relationship between multinational firm proximity and the formation of new export connections by private Chinese exporters between 1997 and 2003. The results indicate that growth in the presence of multinational firms is positively associated with the formation of new trade by local Chinese firms. Further exploration suggests that information spillovers may drive this result, as the positive association due to own-industry multinational presence is particularly strong in contexts where information improvements may be the most helpful. Thus, it appears that a growing presence of multinational firms may enhance the export capabilities of local domestic firms.

The influence of Chinese trade policy on automobile assembly and parts

This paper analyzes the economic effects of content-based import tariffs China imposed on imported auto parts. While China's policy penalized any firm that assembled cars with less than 60 percent Chinese content, the policy was most likely to affect foreign affiliated firms who were more likely to exceed the content ceiling. To assess whether foreign-affiliated firms differentially changed their input sourcing this paper uses Chinese product trade data for 1997 to 2009 which report trade transactions by firm ownership type. Compared with import transactions for other firms, the data show that foreign-affiliated firms appear to have mitigated the effects of the policy by reducing import transaction prices, and by reducing their import quantities on the extensive margin. While China's content-based auto import trade policy was repealed in 2009 after China lost its dispute case at the WTO, the extraordinary growth in China's global export of auto parts since 2005 suggests that China's short term trade policy may have contributed to enduring effects in global supply chains

The Attraction of Foreign Manufacturing Investments: Investment Promotion and Agglomeration Economies

We study Japanese investments between 1980 and 1992 to assess the effectiveness of state promotion efforts in light of strong agglomeration economies in Japanese investment. Two policy variables are consistently shown to influence the location of investment - foreign trade zones and labor subsidies. We use simulations to explore the impact these policies had on the geographic distribution of Japanese investment. The simulations reveal that in aggregate promotion programs largely offset each other; however, unilateral withdrawal of promotion causes individual states to lose substantial amounts of foreign investment.

Trade Policy Uncertainty and Exports: Evidence from China's WTO Accession

To understand the effects of trade policy uncertainty on firm-level export decisions, we study firm-product data on Chinese exports to the U.S. in the years surrounding China’s 2001 WTO accession. Following predictions based on a model of heterogeneous firms, we provide empirical evidence that product-level tariff uncertainty reduction spurred a notable reallocation of export activities across firms, largely due to extensive margin entries and exits. In addition we document accompanying changes in prices and quality that coincided with this reallocation: firms that provided higher quality products at lower prices entered the U.S. export market, while firms that had higher prices and provided lower quality products exited

From Beijing to Bentonville: Do Multinational Retailers Link Markets?

Each of the world's largest retailers---Walmart, Carrefour, Tesco, and Metro---entered China after 1995. Their subsequent expansion in China may have influenced Chinese exports through two channels. First, they may have enhanced bilateral exports between the retailers' Chinese operations and destination countries also served by stores in the retailers' networks. Second, Chinese city-level exports to all destinations may have grown if multinational retailer presence enhanced the general export capabilities of local suppliers. Evidence from Chinese city-level retail goods exports supports the capability hypothesis as the expansion of Chinese city exports follows the geographic expansion of the retailers' Chinese stores and global procurement centers.