Export and Productivity Under Different Market Condition: Evidence from Japan

We use a large dataset of Japanese manufacturing firms to compare the effects of export entry on productivity under different export market conditions. Using the established econometric procedures of Propensity Score Matching and Difference-in-Differences, we explicitly estimate the effects of export entry during two periods with fairly different export market conditions: from 2002 to 2005, corresponding to the earlier period of global economic expansion that ended in 2007, and from 1998 to 2001, the period which witnessed the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis. We find that export entry is associated with significantly higher ex-post productivity growth vis-�-vis non-entrants only during the period with favourable export market conditions. We also find that such advantage in productivity growth is long lasting and is found only for entrants exporting to high-income markets. Furthermore, export entry is associated with higher growth in R&D expenditure only during this period. These findings suggest that the effect of export entry in enhancing productivity growth, sometimes referred to as "learning-by-exporting," depends on good market conditions.

Anatomy of Learning-from-Exporting: Role of foreign knowledge acquisition

The essence of learning-from-exporting can be thought of as a process in which exporters absorb international knowledge spillovers and feed it back to their innovation efforts. Learning-from-exporting is often difficult to observe because it is conditional on at least two efforts: information gathering from foreign markets and zealous R&D. We exploit unique survey data to explicitly analyze the contribution of these activities to exporters' innovation. We find that gathering information from foreign markets significantly raises exporters' probability of succeeding in technology upgrades or new product developments, along with their R&D activities. While learning about the latest foreign technology and competitor products is at the core of such knowledge acquisition, international marketing activities, such as gathering feedback from foreign customers or information on the taste and needs of foreign customers, is also associated with a significant contribution. The importance of foreign knowledge acquisition is also confirmed for exporters that do not serve high-income markets or those that supply intermediate goods. Although it is likely that the acquisition of foreign knowledge contributes to exporters' innovation strategies, such as where to allocate R&D resources, it does not seem to raise the marginal effectiveness of R&D.

Globalization and China's Economic Growth (Japanese)

This publication is in Japanese. Neither an English translation of the publication nor an English abstract is available.

Do All Exporters Benefit from Export Boom? -Evidence from Japan

We use a large dataset of Japanese manufacturing firms to investigate the effect of the late export boom to the productivity growth and various productivity enhancing investments by exporting firms. We find that large exporters enjoyed significantly higher productivity growth over non-exporters while it was not the case for the small exporters which constitute a large mass of Japanese exporters. We also find striking evidence that only the exporters serving worldwide actually enjoyed significant advantage in productivity growth, and not those that exported only to Asia which corresponds to about 50% of small exporters. On the other hand, we find that both large and small exporters engaged in more intensive innovation activities and capital investments. Therefore, although the late export boom did not reward all exporters in an even way, it did encourage wide range of exporter investments that should enhance their productivity. Export boom is thus the case where exporters build up productivity advantage over non-exporters long after their entry, offering additional explanation on the formation of universally observed exporters' "premium" on productivity level

Technology, labour market institutions and early retirement

There are two important barriers to increasing the employment of older workers under rapid technological change. First, older workers engaged in codifiable, routine tasks are particularly prone to the risk of being displaced by computers and robots. Second, several countries have in place various labour market institutions that encourage early retirement, such as exceptional entitlements or looser criteria for unemployment and disability benefits applied to older individuals. We present evidence that these two factors reinforce each other to push older workers out of employment. We find that older workers who are more exposed to digital technologies face a higher risk of exiting employment and that this effect is significantly magnified when they are eligible for an extension of unemployment benefits until the earliest age for drawing old age pension. Furthermore, we present a simple simulation to illustrate that a policy reform that tightens the eligibility for the benefits extension increases mostly the employment of older workers that are more exposed to digital technologies. Our findings provide an important implication on policies to promote longer working lives under rapid technological change. They highlight the importance of closing institutional pathways to early retirement to encourage employers and older workers to make the necessary investment that would allow older workers to keep up with technological change and work longer.peerReviewe

Promoting longer working lives in the digital era

High automation risk discourages older workers from remaining in employment. In technologically advanced countries such as Finland, generous unemployment benefits to people 59 and over ends up creating a retirement pathway. Simply pushing that age limit back increases the probability that older workers facing higher risk of automation will remain in employment. Naomitsu Yashiro, Tomi Kyyrä, Hyunjeong Hwang, and Juha Tuomala write that as governments move to discourage early retirement, employers will need to work together with employees to support longer working lives

Technology, Labour Market Institutions and Early Retirement: Evidence from Finland

There are two major barriers to increasing employment of older workers. First, older workers engaged in codifiable, routine tasks are particularly prone to the risk of being displaced by computers and robots. Second, several countries have in place various labour market institutions that encourage early retirement, such as exceptional entitlements or looser criteria for unemployment and disability benefits applied to older individuals. We present evidence that these two factors reinforce each other to push older workers out of employment. We find that older workers who are more exposed to digital technologies are more likely to leave employment, and that this effect is significantly magnified when they are eligible to an extension of unemployment benefits until the earliest age for drawing old age pension. Furthermore, our findings imply that a policy reform that tightens the eligibility for the benefit extension would increase mostly the employment of older workers that are more exposed to digital technologies.nonPeerReviewe