交通基础设施与中国多产品企业出口产品组合调整——基于中欧班列开通的准自然实验研究

Transportation Infrastructure and Export Product Mix Adjustment of Chinese Multi-product Firms:A Quasi-natural Experimental Study Based on the Opening of China-Europe Railway Express

多产品企业出口产品组合调整是企业内资源优化配置的核心内容,多产品企业更集中于核心产品有助于实现贸易高质量发展。文章使用2008—2014年工企海关匹配数据,以中欧班列开通为准自然实验,采用多期DID的方法通过辐网效应和多产品企业运输方式比重变化相结合的实证策略考察了处理组(受到中欧班列开通影响的企业)和对照组(未受到中欧班列开通影响的企业)的产品组合差异,探讨了中欧班列开通对中国多产品企业出口产品组合的影响。研究发现:中欧班列的开通使中国多产品企业更倾向于出口其销量表现更好的核心产品,同时验证了辐网效应的存在和影响边界。中欧班列开通对企业内出口产品组合的影响主要通过“鲶鱼效应”和竞争效应两种中间机制产生作用。最后,文章从产品要素密集度、目的国市场规模和企业竞争策略三方面进行了异质性分析,发现以工业制成品出口为主导、目的国市场规模更大、采取质量竞争的中国多产品企业更倾向于出口核心产品。文章为多产品企业在面临外部环境变化时实现企业内资源优化配置提供了新的证据,为深入推进“一带一路”高质量发展提供了可选路径。

The adjustment of the export product mix of multi-product firms is the core issue of the optimal allocation of resources within the firms. More concentration of resources in firms on core products enhance the High-quality trade of development. The opening and normalization of the China-Europe Railway Express has built a new round the clock,large-volume and low-carbon transportation channel,which ensures the stability of the global industrial chain and supply chain. At the same time,with the improvement of the quantity and quality of China-Europe Railway Express,countries along the route have actively participated in the China-Europe Railway Express,and freight hubs(such as Lodz and Hamburg)have also formed a transportation network. Besides,China-Europe Railway Express weakens the dependence of Chinese firms exports on shipping,air and other mode of transportation. The opening of the China-Europe Railway Express plays an important role in the export of Chinese firms to the European market.This paper uses the matching data of industrial firms and customs from 2008 to 2014,taking the opening of China-Europe Railway Express as the Quasi-natural Experimental. We use the method of multi-stage Differences-in-Differences(DID)to identify the product mix differences between the treatment group(firms affected by the opening of China-Europe Railway Express)and the control group(firms not affected by the opening of China-Europe Railway Express)through novel empirical strategy,which combines radial network effect with the change of transportation mode proportion of multi product firms. Besides,we discuss the impact of China-Europe Railway Express policy on the changes of intra-firms export product mix of Chinese multi-product firms. The results show that the opening of China-Europe Railway Express makes Chinese multi-product firms incline to export better performing core products. At the same time,the existence and influence boundary of the radial network effect are tested. The impact of the opening of the China-Europe Railway Express on the export product mix of firms mainly occurs through two intermediate mechanisms,the Catfish effect and the Competition effect. Finally,we analyze the heterogeneity from three aspects:product factor intensity,destination country market size and firm competition strategy. The results show that Chinese multi-product firms,which are dominated by the export of manufactured products,have larger destination country market scales and adopt quality competition,are more inclined to export core products. We provide new evidence for multi-product firms to optimize the allocation of internal resources in the face of changes in the external environment and provides an optional path for further promoting the high-quality development of the“Belt and Road”.This paper makes the following contributions. First,this paper combines the network effect with the change of transportation mode proportion of multi-product firms,which is applied to explore the impact of policy shocks on the adjustment of export product mix of multi-product firms for the first time. Second,this paper contributes to related research on export product mix optimization of multi-product firms. Third,this paper contributes to the related research on the economic effects of the opening of the China-Europe Railway Express of the“Belt and Road”and explores new intermediate mechanisms.