Content area
Full text
http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/s10290-016-0245-1&domain=pdf
Web End = http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/s10290-016-0245-1&domain=pdf
Web End = http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/s10290-016-0245-1&domain=pdf
Web End = http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/s10290-016-0245-1&domain=pdf
Web End = http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/s10290-016-0245-1&domain=pdf
Web End = Rev World Econ (2016) 152:251281 DOI 10.1007/s10290-016-0245-1
http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/s10290-016-0245-1&domain=pdf
Web End = http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/s10290-016-0245-1&domain=pdf
Web End = http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/s10290-016-0245-1&domain=pdf
Web End = http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/s10290-016-0245-1&domain=pdf
Web End = ORIGINAL PAPER
Indirect exporters and importers
Marco Grazzi1 Chiara Tomasi2,3
Published online: 25 January 2016 Kiel Institute 2016
Abstract This paper analyses the relation between rms productivity and the different modes of participation in international trade. In particular, it accounts for the possibility that rms can not only export their products, but also internationally source their inputs, either directly or indirectly. Using a cross section of rm level data for several advanced and developing economies, the study conrms the productivity-sorting prediction according to which domestic rms are less efcient than those that resort to an export intermediary, while the latter are less productive than producers which export directly. We show that the same sorting exists on the import side. By considering rms involved in both exporting and importing activities, we also nd that direct two-way traders are on average more productive than rms trading indirectly on one of the two trade sides. The latter are in turn more efcient than indirect two-way traders. Finally, we investigate the effects of source-country characteristics on the sorting of rms into different modes of international trade.
Keywords Heterogeneous rms Direct and indirect exports Direct and indirect
imports Two-way traders Intermediation
JEL Classication F14 D22 L22
& Chiara Tomasi [email protected]
1 Department of Economics, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
2 Department of Economics, Universit degli Studi di Trento, Via Inama, 5, 38122 Trento, Italy
3 LEM, Scuola Superiore S.Anna, Pisa, Italy
123
252 M. Grazzi, C. Tomasi
1 Introduction
The last two decades have seen a boom in disaggregated data sources which has made it possible to discern a great deal of differences among rms, even within the same sector. In this scenario, the international trade literature, has been one of the rst to reap the benets associated with increased data availability, so that new theoretical models have been put forward, and an entire new set of empirical facts concerning the differences between exporters and non-exporters has been established. Whilst the emergence of such rm level heterogeneities...