Global Value Chains, Horizontal Intra-lndustry Trade and the Heterogeneous Firm

This paper examines global value chains at the level of the heterogeneous firm. The context is a world of horizontal intra-industry trade, characterized by imperfect competition and product differentiation at the firm level. Standard microeconomic tools are employed to assess the effects of inter-firm dissimilarities in both demand and supply on firms＇ responses to changes in trade policy. In this set-up, dissimilarities in firm characteristics play roles similar to factor endowments and technology differences in traditional trade models. When cross-border production sharing （＂fragmentation＂） is introduced into this framework, those differences in firm characteristics determine the degree to which individual firms will enter into production networks. In this context, horizontal and vertical intra-industry tradel elements interact in their effects on firm decisions. Traditional comparative advantage considerations still govern the choice of off-shored activities, while direct competition between imports and exports expands the range of possible outcomes. Finally, it is shown that cross-border production sharing reduces the sensitivity of firms to variations in exchange rates, matching a phenomenon that has been observed in traditional country-level models.

Heterogeneous Firms in Importing： Theory and Evidence from China

In this study, I explore the effects of the financial status of firms on its decisions to import. The import decision is reflected in various aspects, such as whether to import or buy from home market; what types of goods to import, etc. A novelty of this analysis is that I distinguish between ordinary trade and processing trade, which involves importing inputs to be assembled and re-exported. Several novel patterns emerge. Firstly, a firm＇s financial status, especially its liquidity, significantly influences its decisions to import. Secondly, regional financial development also has a significantly affect importing decisions. However, a firm＇s creditworthiness and regional factors work independently （i.e., regional financial development does not alleviate a firm＇s credit constraints）. The findings yield implications for developing economies which demand technological spillovers from advanced markets and those which maintain large trade surpluses with the developed economies.

The impact of environmental regulation on total factor productivity of firms:An analysis based on technical distance

Most studies on environmental policy and total factor productivity(TFP)growth under the heterogeneity framework tend to ignore the distance to the technical frontier,while research that investigates TFP growth based on technical distances does not tend to consider environmental policy.To fill this research gap,this study investigates the impact of environmental regulation on the total factor productivity of heterogeneous firms,based on technical distance.In addition to theoretical analysis,we apply a two-direction fixed effects model to test the impact using firm-level data selected from the CSMAR database and environmental regulation data of 287 Chinese cities between 2007 and 2015.We report two major findings from our analysis.First,environmental regulation increasingly enhances(or hinders)TFP growth,as firms get closer to(or further away from)the country-industry technology frontier,ceteris paribus.Second,grouped regression further highlights that environmental regulation affects TFP growth for heterogeneous firms.For proximal-type firms,environmental regulation promotes the growth of TFP through innovation and imitation mechanisms,while only the imitation mechanism works for middle-type firms.Neither mechanism,however,applies to distal-type firms,for whom environmental regulation hinders TFP growth.These conclusions provide a theoretical and practical basis for environmental policy,suggesting that the focus should be directed toward improving exit mechanisms for distal-type firms,creating a favorable market environment to accelerate the convergence of middle-type firms to the frontier,and encouraging proximal-type firms to innovate to catch up with or surpass the global frontier.

Value-Added Trade and Evolution of China's Comparative Advantages

Based on heterogeneity in firm's sales destinations and trade patterns, this paper estimates China's ratio of value-added exports(RVAE) using value-added trade accounting, and discusses the evolution of China's comparative advantages from the perspective of value-added trade. Our research findings suggest that without taking into account heterogeneity in firm's sales destinations and trade patterns,China's RVAE will be overestimated. Conventional gross trade accounting underestimates the export competitiveness of China's labor-intensive and capital intensive sectors, but overestimates the export competitiveness of China's technology-intensive sectors,which leads to a significant reversal of comparative advantages. Conventional gross trade accounting method overestimates the trade surplus of China's manufacturing and technology-intensive sectors with the US by about 60% and 85% respectively.

Whether to Abolish or Introduce Dual Regulation as Trade and Environmental Policy?

China,which has already introduced an environmental tax in an effort to decarbonize,has recently begun emissions trading and is using two environmental policies in tandem,but there are concerns about the impact on growth and trade.Trade and environmental policies affect firms'entry and exit,resulting in changes in aggregate productivity and pollution emissions.This study compares the impacts of single regulation and dual regulation on welfare,using a research-and-development based growth model with heterogeneous firms.Under single regulation,the cleansing effect of trade liberalization could be undermined.Under dual regulation,trade liberalization decreases pollution and improves average productivity whereas decreasing total permits reduces pollution.From the perspective of improving welfare it is desirable to choose dual regulation because trade liberalization can reduce total pollution emissions via the cleansing effect of trade liberalization.

Product-destination Portfolio and Dynamics by Firm Ownership and Trade Mode:Evidence from Chinese Industrial Exporters

Using matched firm-level trade and production data over the period 200~2006, we study the produet-destination portfolio and dynamics of Chinese industrial exporters and make a thorough comparison among four types of frms and between two kinds of trade modes. We find that ownership structure and trading modes do matter to the destination and product mix choices of Chinese industrial exporters. In particular, foreign frms＇ exports and processing trade tend to be more destination-specific and products are more specialized. Therefore, foreign firms are more likely to maintain a partieular link within a specific＇ global supply chain.

中国企业在美投资区位选择--产业集聚、华侨网络与企业异质性

China's outward foreign direct investment(FDI)is different from traditional FDI in various ways,for example being rooted in“Guanxi”in Chinese culture,influenced by govern-ment,and located in developed economies where they have limited ownership advantages compared with local firms.Chinese investment in the United States(the U.s.)is an example of how the location is influenced by economic factors,social linkages,as well as geopolitical events,such as the U.S.-China trade conflict,which deserves more academic attention.It is such a complex phenomenon that cannot be fully explained by traditional FDI theories,which mainly focus on economic factors.In this paper,we illustrate the historical development,distri-bution and firm heterogeneity of Chinese investment in the U.S.from 2000 to 2020,and use a conditional logit model to investigate the location factors.Our study reveals that the number of Chinese investment projects in the U.S.peaked in 2017 and has declined year-over-year since then.These projects are mainly located along the East and West coasts of the U.S.and around the Great Lakes,with the largest numbers in California and New York.Previous Chinese in-vestment agglomeration and ethnic networks both influence the location choice of China's outward FDl,even when controlling for regional attributes and economic embeddedness.In terms of firm heterogeneity,Chinese firms that enter the American market with greenfield in-vestment modes,state-owned enterprises and firms in high-tech sectors are more likely to fol-low previous Chinese investment,but place less emphasis on Chinese ethnic linkages,implying that previous Chinese investment agglomeration can replace the role of Chinese ethnic net-works for these firms.Finally,the U.S.-China trade conflict has significantly lessened the active role of Chinese ethnic networks and has reduced Chinese investment in states with higher in-dustrial output.

How the Internet Promotes China’s Exports:A Firm-level Perspective

The development of information and communications technologyv(ICT),particularly the Internet,has reduced trade costs.However,it remains unclear whether these reduced costs are reflected in the “extensive margins”of firms'exports(which refer to the probability of firms exporting)or the “intensive margins”(which refer to the value of firms'export).To test this,we used the concepts of information cost and binary margins,an augmented trade model of firm heterogeneity,a two-stage Heckman estimation,and data from the World Bank Enterprise Survey of Chinese firms in 2012.The results revealed that reduced trade costs from the use of ICT were positively related to extensive margins but that the connection with intensive margins was not significant.The results lead to the conclusion that reduced information costs related to a firm's exporting behavior were primarily reflcted in variable trade cosis.This study offers theoretical and empirical evidence for China 3 policies towards the Internet,which are relevant for the export of manufactured goods.The government should encourage the use of ICT to enhance firms export opporunities while facing current trade policy uncerainty.

The impact of regulatory and financial discrimination on China's low-carbon development:Considering firm heterogeneity

Firms in China within the same industry but with different ownership and size have different production functions and face different emission regulations and financial conditions,thus can give very different responses to environmental policies.This fact has been largely ignored in most of the low-carbon development related literature.Using an augmented Chinese input–output table in which information about firm size(large-and small and medium-sized firms)and ownership(state-,foreign-,and private-owned firms)are explicitly reported,a dynamic computable general equilibrium model is developed in this study to analyze the impact of alternative low-carbon policy designs with different regulatory coverage and financial equalization on heterogeneous firms.Our simulation results show that,with the fully balanced regulation coverage and equalized financial system for heterogeneous firms,the total green investment accounts for 4%of GDP in 2030 for fulfilling China's commitment to reduce carbon emissions,which is the lowest among the various scenarios;about one-third of this investment is made by small and private firms;at the same time,green investment efficiency will be the highest,about 84%higher than that of the business-as-usual level.Therefore,a market-oriented and new technology-driven arrangement and mechanism for sharing emission reduction burden and allocating green investment across heterogeneous firms,especially to small and medium-sized firms,is crucial for China to achieve a more ambitious emission target in the long run.

An Overlapping-Generations Model of Firm Heterogeneity in Economic Development

We study overlapping-generations firm heterogeneity in economic development in an general equilibrium model in which manufacturing firms engage in oligopolistic competition. Individuals differ in their productivities in the manufacturing sector and choose to become entrepreneurs or workers. The model is surprisingly tractable. In the steady state, an increase in the entry barrier in the manufacturing sector or an increase in the percentage of income spent on the agricultural good decreases the wage rate, but the level of output in the manufacturing sector does not necessarily decrease. An increase in the degree of patience of an individual increases the steady state wage rate and the capital stock. Even with increasing returns in manufacturing and constant returns in agriculture, neither the wage rate nor the output level in the manufacturing sector may increase with population size.