Trade,Tariffs and Total Factor Productivity: The Case of Spanish Firms

The aim of this paper is to examine the sensitivity of total factor productivity (TFP) to foreign competition in the case of a European country. Using the Olley and Pakes (1996) method, we calculate the TFP of Spanish manufacturing firms and study the impact of EU tariffs, foreign competition and imports on TFP at the firm level. Applying the System-GMM method, we find that TFP is negatively impacted by European tariffs, whereas the competition, in the form of increased presence of foreign products in the domestic market and firms' imports, leads to improvements of the TFP. Moreover, these two effects are complementary. We also find evidence of important asymmetries among firms depending on their involvement in foreign markets. El objetivo de este artículo es estudiar la sensibilidad de la productividad total de los factores (PTF) a la competencia extranjera en el caso de un país europeo. Calculamos la PTF de las empresas manufactureras españolas con el método de Olley y Pakes (1996) y estudiamos el impacto de los aranceles europeos, de la competencia extranjera y de las importaciones sobre la PTF de las empresas. Utilizando el método System-GMM, obtenemos que la PTF se ve negativamente afectada por los aranceles europeos, mientras la competencia, bajo la forma de una presencia mayor de productos extranjeros en el mercado domestico o en términos de importaciones de las empresas, contribuye a mejorar la PTF. Además, estos dos efectos son complementarios. Encontramos también pruebas de importantes asimetrías entre las empresas, dependiendo de su grado de implicación en los mercados internacionales.productividad total de los factores, España, comercio, aranceles, heterogeneidad de las empresas. Total factor productivity, Spain, trade, tariffs, heterogeneity of firms.

Do sunk exporting costs differ among markets? Evidence from Spanish manufacturing firms.

In this paper, we test the hypothesis of sunk exporting costs differing among markets. We use a sample of Spanish firms from Encuesta sobre Estrategias Empresariales (ESEE) for period 1991-2002. Our results confirm the importance of those sunk costs and demonstrate that they differ depending on the market they export to. Although most of the firms exports to developed markets, the costs to enter (and "to re-enter") are greater in those markets.Sunk costs, heterogeneity of firms, Regionalism.

Do sunk exporting costs differ among markets? Evidence from Spanish manufacturing firms

In this paper, we test the hypothesis of sunk exporting costs differing among markets. We use a sample of Spanish firms from Encuesta sobre Estrategias Empresariales (ESEE) for period 1991-2002. Our results confirm the importance of those sunk costs and demonstrate that they differ depending on the market they export to. Although most of the firms exports to developed markets, the costs to enter (and "to re-enter") are greater in those markets.The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the CICYT Project SEJ2005-001163 and SEJ2006–11067 (Spanish Ministry of Education and FEDER), Grupo de investigación GAMMA (SEJ 340), Fundación Centro de Estudios Andaluces (ECOD.105/034)

Formulation et estimation des modèles de mesure de la productivité totale des facteurs : une étude sur un panel d'entreprises turques

This work deals with the various methods of measuring total factor productivity (TFP) at the firm level (index numbers, data envelopment analysis, stochastic frontier, semi-parametric method and generalized method of moments). These methods are investigated both from a theoretical and empirical viewpoint with a panel of Turkish firms in order to highlight their similarities and dissimilarities. Our main results indicate that these methods do not estimate precisely the same components included in the TFP concept. Thus, the appropriate choice of the method appears to depend firstly on what we want to identify and secondly on the characteristics of data such as measurement errors and technology heterogeneity.

Does export-market participation improve productivity? Evidence from Spanish manufacturing firms

ACL-3International audienceThis article has a dual aim. First, it sets out to underline a learning-by-exporting effect in Spanish firms between 1991 and 2002. It further seeks to outline the conditions allowing firms to benefit from these spillover effects. Using a propensity score matching method, a group of firms having entered the export market (treatment group) is compared with a similar group of non-exporting firms (control group), and difference-in-differences regressions are carried out. The results show a cumulative productivity differential of 32% for the first four years of exporting, with continuous improvement in productivity. After three years of exporting, productivity gain is still approximately 10%. This study shows that increases in capacity utilisation and competitive pressure from foreign markets are insufficient to explain this causal link between exporting and total factor productivity (TFP). It is thus possible to deduce the presence of a learning-by-exporting effect, benefiting firms with sufficiently qualified employees and which are already engaged in international relations (due to foreign suppliers and/or foreign equity participation)

Global Value Chains and Local Business Environments: Which Factors Really Matter in Developing Countries?

International audienceThis study assesses the effect of an economy’s business environment on the ability of firms to be part of a global value chain (GVC). With the use of a comprehensive firm-level dataset from the World Bank Enterprise Survey—and with a special focus on the countries of the Middle East and North Africa and East Asia and Pacific regions—the contribution of the paper is threefold: First, it provides a range of measures of the characteristics of firms that would identify a firm as likely to be integrated into a GVC. Second, it examines the association between an array of business environment variables—infrastructure; access to finance; fiscal policy; enforcement of contracts; ease of obtaining permits; extent of the informal sector; trade procedures; and firm and investor security—and the likelihood of a firm’s being integrated into a GVC. Third, we examine these effects separately for small and large firms and for sectors with high and low tariffs. Our main findings show that, in general, the number of days that are required to pay taxes, the number of procedures that are necessary to register property, and the time to export and to import have a significantly negative association with the likelihood of a firm’s integration into a GVC. More heterogeneity is observed at the regional level, at the firm size level, and for sectors with high versus low tariffs

Labor Market Shocks and Youths' Time Allocation in Egypt: Where Does Women's Empowerment Come In?

International audienc

Imports and TFP at the Firm Level: The Role of Absorptive Capacity

This paper estimates the effect of the decision to import intermediate goods and capital equipment on Total Factor Productivity (TFP) at the firm level on a panel of Spanish firms (1991-2002). We use two alternative approaches. In the first, we estimate TFP and apply a diff-in-diff estimator with a control group constructed by propensity-score matching. In the second, direct method, we estimate TFP with imported inputs as a state variable in one stage. Both approaches show that the effect of a firm’s decision to source intermediates and capital equipment abroad on its TFP depends critically on its capacity to absorb technology, measured by the proportion of skilled labor.Productivity; TFP; Imports; Olley-Pakes; Absorptive Capacity

Biological well-being in late nineteenth-century Philippines

International audienceThis paper investigates the biological standard of living in the Philippines toward the end of Spanish rule. We investigate levels, trends, and determinants of physical stature from the birth cohorts of the 1860s to the 1890s using data on 23,000 Filipino soldiers enlisted by the US military between 1901 and 1913. We estimate average heights and use province-level information for investigating the determinants of biological well-being. We find that at 159.3 cm (62.7 inches), the average height of soldiers born in the mid-1870s was very short even for the time. The low biological standard of living observed in late nineteenth-century Philippines was not due to the tropical disease environment alone since greater heights were recorded for the same period in other parts of Asia with a similar climate. The results also indicate a decline of more than 1.5 cm (0.6 inches) in the height of soldiers born between the early 1870s and the late 1880s. This decline occurred at a time when there was an expansion of commercial activity in cash crop production for export. Heights did not regain the level of the 1870s until the late 1930s and early 1940s

Do Japanese MNCs use expatriates to contain risk in Asian host countries?

ACL-3International audienceWe investigate the impact of host-country risk on the expatriation strategies of multinational firms, using data on Japanese subsidiary firms in manufacturing industries in 13 host countries in Asia. We find that country risk is negatively correlated with the degree of expatriation and that, rather than host-country risk, firm-specific factors (particularly capital intensity, ownership share of parent firms in subsidiaries and the age of the venture) explain most of the variation in the degree to which subsidiaries rely on Japanese expatriates. Contrary to previous studies, the capital intensity of production is a key explanatory firm-specific variable that correlates positively with the degree of expatriation. Japanese multinational companies do not rely on expatria127=tes to off-set host-country risk, but to mitigate risk to parent investment in subsidiaries