RIEB Discussion Paper Series No.2019-19
RIEB Discussion Paper Series No.2019-19
Title
Infrastructure Bottlenecks and Dual-Channel Exporters
Abstract
This paper investigates how infrastructure bottlenecks affect a firm's export mode. We find that under infrastructure bottlenecks, the most efficient firms become the so-called "dual-channel exporters", which export only a fraction of their products directly, with the remaining products exported through intermediaries. Using linked annual survey of industrial production and transaction-level customs datasets in China, we document that a significant share of firms are the dual-channel exporters. Further, these exporters are more productive than the direct and indirect exporters. Our quantitative model suggests that the elimination of exporting capacity constraint arising from infrastructure bottlenecks leads to substantial aggregate productivity growth via improved resource reallocation.
Keywords
Infrastructure bottlenecks, Dual-channel Exporters, Productivity, Capacity constraint, Resource misallocation
JEL Classification
F10, O18
Inquiries
Xiao FENGSchool of Economics, Nankai University
Yongjin WANG
School of Economics, Nankai University
Laixun ZHAO
Research Institute for Economics and Business Administration,
Kobe University
Rokkodai-cho, Nada-ku, Kobe
657-8501 Japan
Phone: +81-78-803-7036
FAX: +81-78-803-7059