集聚效应或选择效应:城市规模与出口产品质量

Agglomeration Effect or Selection Effect: City Size and Export Product Quality

本文从集聚效应和选择效应两个方面综合考察了市场规模对产品质量的影响。为区分两种效应,本文引入集聚经济和内生产品质量拓展了Melitz和Ottaviano(2008)的企业选择模型,然后采用无条件分布特征—参数对应方法,基于2000—2013年中国海关的企业—产品交易数据识别了两者对中国大城市出口产品质量优势的相对贡献。研究结果表明:大城市出口产品质量优势来源于集聚效应及其异质性和选择效应,特别是在质量差异化范围较大的行业内;忽略选择效应会高估同质性集聚效应并低估异质性集聚效应的贡献。基于所得结论,本文建议进一步强化市场竞争和集聚经济的基本面,助力企业产品质量升级、畅通国内国际双循环,为经济高质量发展寻求稳定增长点。

High-quality product is the key factor for successful export and high-quality economic development.This paper examines the influence of market size on product quality from agglomeration and selection effect. To distinguish the two effects, this paper extends Melitz and Ottaviano’s(2008) firm-selection model by introducing agglomeration economy and endogenous product quality, then identify the relative contributions of the two effects by adopting the unconditional distribution feature-parameter correspondence approach and firm-product transaction data from Chinese customs(2000-2013). Results suggest that the product quality advantage in large cities achieved from the agglomeration effect and its heterogeneity or selection effect, especially in industries with a wide range of quality differentiation. Ignoring the selection effect will overestimate the contribution of homogenous agglomeration effect and underestimate that of heterogeneous agglomeration effect. Based on the findings, this paper suggests further strengthening market competition and agglomeration economy, helping enterprises upgrade product quality, smoothing domestic and international dual circulation, and thus seeking stable growth points for high-quality economic development.