Search

This paper uses firm-level data from company tax declarations to analyse the complementary relationship between direct access to imported intermediate inputs and manufacturing firm productivity in South Africa. We provide support for the hypothesis of firm learning by importing. Our results show that importing is associated with higher productivity among South African manufacturing firms. In addition, importing a wider variety of intermediate inputs is associated with higher firm productivity, which is consistent with the idea that imported input varieties complement domestic varieties in production. We do not find strong evidence that imports from advanced economies are more relevant for productivity than are imports from emerging economies-which is contrary to expectations that the superior technology that is embedded in advanced economy imports would boost firm productivity.

Media outlets globally have been reporting about civil protests against Chinese investments in Africa. We provide new evidence on this controversial topic and investigate the influence of Chinese official projects on political participation in 54 African countries between 20 0 0 and 2014. Using 50 x 50 km cells as the unit of analysis, we match data on the occurrence of protests and other forms of political participation to georeferenced data on projects financed by the Chinese government. We find that cells which receive a larger number of projects are more likely to experience protests. Further, our analysis suggests that citizens' heightened perception of China's rising influence on the domestic economy and lowered trust in the local government are two channels through which projects might motivate local protests. (c) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

First published:16 September 2019 This paper investigates the factors driving manufacturing growth accelerations in a sample of 134 developing countries over the period 1970 to 2014. We first identify growth acceleration episodes of manufacturing value added (MVA) by their year of initiation and according to a country's income classification. We then estimate a probit model to explain what factors predict these MVA growth accelerations. Our results show that human capital and institutions represent contextual factors that favor the growth of manufacturing, together with macroeconomic policies related to investment, and openness to foreign trade and capital. We also find that most of these factors not only foster episodic accelerations of industry, but they contribute as well to a sustained process of industrialization that characterized the process of economic growth of a few successful countries over the period 1970 to 2014. Government of Japan through the Development Cooperation Trust Fund

This paper analyses the factors determining the establishment of backward linkages and their key features once established. To carry out our analysis, we exploit an original survey conducted in 2011 on roughly 1500 investors based in Vietnam. We show that some characteristics of the investor firm, including size, productivity, experience and autonomy in decision-making, affect the capacity of linkages to create a larger network of local suppliers. In addition, we show that it is the provision of a good investment climate, and more importantly of key business support services, that mainly influences the capacity of investors to trigger knowledge and other key resources' transfer to their local suppliers. (C) 2018 The Society for Policy Modeling. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

This paper analyses the impact of trade liberalization on local labour markets in Ethiopia, with a focus on the gender dimension of employment. By exploiting rich micro-level data on Ethiopian workers, we evaluate the effect of the Ethiopian trade reforms on the changes and composition of employment, adopting as unit of analysis Ethiopian districts. We find that districts more exposed to trade liberalization experienced reductions in their employment levels, especially in female employment. We also show that reductions in (agricultural) input tariffs triggers a process of sectoral reallocation from agriculture to services and that this process is particularly pronounced for women. This in turns contributes to increase sectoral segregation.

This paper provides new empirical evidence on the relative productivity disadvantage of female-owned firms compared with male-owned firms in a developing country setting. We rely on a large panel of manufacturing firms based on an annual census run by the Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia. Our preferred estimation shows a 12% difference in levels of total factor productivity between female- and male-owned firms. Drawing on novel quantile approaches to formally compare productivity distributions, we also dig deeper into some of the potential mechanisms underlying this gender-based firm productivity gap. Our findings suggest that various forces are at work. Most female-owned firms seem to concentrate in certain less productive subsectors, and only very few succeed in standing out. Moreover, lower productivity of female-owned firms is shown to relate to a combination of observed firm characteristics and unobserved structural factors that varies according to a firm’s position in the overall productivity distribution.

We examine the role of road infrastructure in determining the impact of a reduction in input tariffs on firm productivity. We combine new geo-spatial data on road improvements in Ethiopia with establishment level data on manufacturing firms that allow us to estimate physical productivity. Results show that an input tariff reduction is associated with a larger increase in firm productivity in areas where better roads improve access to other intranational markets. Roads magnify pass-through of tariff reductions to imported input prices and also incentivize firms to exploit this cost advantage to enhance productivity. Road infrastructure hence complements trade liberalization.

First published online: 09 July 2020 This paper examines whether and to what extent markups can influence structural transformation in a developing country by creating entry barriers. We exploit information from the Ethiopian annual census of manufacturing establishments to estimate markups and their dispersion at industry and woreda-industry-wide levels. We then analyse the relationship between markup dispersion and firm entry rates in local markets. Results show that higher markup dispersion significantly correlates with lower entry rates into a market, even in the presence of expected positive average markups. Specifically, an increase in dispersion from its median to the values at the 90(th)percentile of the distribution is related to a 4.2% point lower entry rate. This result is robust to different estimation methods as well as to different definitions of the key variables.

First published online: 02 August 2020 This paper exploits a firm-level dataset for nineteen sub-Saharan African countries that provides information on the share of total sales to government entities to provide new insights into the relative importance of participation in public procurement activity for different types of firms. The data suggest that foreign-owned firms often account for a large share of total public procurement, illustrating the importance of FDI as a channel to contest procurement markets. Participation in public procurement is positively associated with different measures of firm performance. This is most strongly the case for domestic firms, especially small companies, and firms engaged in manufacturing activities. The positive association increases with the share of foreign firms in total public procurement, suggesting more open policy environments enhance local competitiveness.

We combine data on Chinese development projects with data from Demographic and Health Surveys to study the impact of Chinese aid on household welfare in sub-Saharan Africa. We use a novel methodology to test the effect of Chinese aid on three important development outcomes: education, health, and nutrition. For each outcome, we use difference-in-difference estimations to compare household areas near Chinese project sites to control areas located farther away, before and after receiving Chinese aid. This empirical strategy rules out many confounding factors that can bias measuring the impact of Chinese aid on our outcome variables. First, we find that Chinese projects significantly improve education and child mortality in treatment areas, but do not significantly affect nutrition. Second, social sector projects have a larger effect on outcomes than economic projects. Third, we do not find significant effects for projects that ended more than five years before the post-treatment survey wave. Our results are robust to a host of robustness checks.

This article empirically investigates the effect of structural transformation on wage inequality in Asia, using industry-level data for three skill groups of workers. While structural transformation, associated with technological progress, productivity catching-up, and capital deepening, has contributed to Asias sustained growth, its effect on income inequality remains uncertain. Our results show that the process of economic transformation has exacerbated inequality in the region by increasing the relative share of high-skilled workers in total compensation. This is mainly due to a shift toward more productiveand more intensive in the use of skilled laboractivities both within and between industries. However, we also find that policy responses, especially investments in education, mitigate the increase in inequality.

This paper analyses the drivers of successful industrialization in developing countries. We consider two different periods, 1970-1990 and 1991-2014, likely to be affected by different patterns of industrialization due to major political, technological and organizational changes. We subsequently develop a methodology to identify a small group of countries for each period, which have exhibited a pattern of industrialization that is not only remarkable in absolute terms, but also sustained. Our analysis reveals that successful industrialization is driven by a combination of factors, including a country's initial economic conditions, factor endowments and other characteristics, such as demography and geography. We also show that other variables that policymakers can control play a crucial role. This includes, among others, the promotion of investments (both public and privately funded) and education; the management of trade and capital openness; financial sector development and the promotion of both macroeconomic and institutional stability. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The local sourcing of intermediate products is one the main channels for foreign direct investment (FM) spillovers. This paper investigates whether and how participation and positioning in the global value chains (GVCs) of host countries is associated to local sourcing by foreign investors. Matching two firm level data sets on 19 Sub-Saharan African countries and Vietnam to country-sector level measures of GVC involvement, we find that more intense GVC participation and upstream specialization are associated to a higher share of inputs sourced locally by foreign investors. These effects are larger in countries with stronger rule of law and better education. (C) 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license.

This paper analyzes the impact of Chinese competition on developed countries export prices, with a focus on Italy. After a theoretical discussion of the channels affecting export prices in presence of competitors from low income countries, we estimate the pricing behavior of two major manufacturing sectors, consumer goods and machinery, distinguishing destination markets according to their income level. Results show that export competition from China has affected Italian price strategies over the period 2000-08, in an idiosyncratic way according to the income level of importers, sector and technology level of products exported. Contrary to what observed for other high-income countries, we find that Italy has followed a very specific strategy to face Chinese competition. Instead of changing “between sector”, moving up to the technology ladder, Italy has kept its specialization in traditional sectors and has upgraded the quality of its low-tech and labor-intensive products, when in direct competition with Chinese ones. For higher technology products, on the other hand, it has adjusted prices downward to reduce Chinese competitive pressure, especially in segments where it does not hold a comparative advantage, while it has fostered differentiation only for some niche products within the sectors with higher specialization.

This article uses firm-level data from company income tax and customs declarations from South Africa to analyse the complementary relationship between direct access to imported intermediate inputs and firm exports in the manufacturing industry. There are two main findings. The first is on firm heterogeneity, showing that firms that import and export consistently demonstrate premiums in terms of productivity, employment, wages and capital intensity in production compared to firms that do not trade, or only export or import. The second supports the hypothesis that importing raises exports, especially if inputs are sourced from advanced economies.

Published online: 19 December 2017 Germany and Italy are the largest manufacturing producers in Europe and export over 70% of their products to OECD countries. While they share many characteristics, they are also diverse in term of specialization and destination markets. Italy has a productive structure largely based on labour intensive sectors, while Germany is mainly specialized in high-tech goods. We study whether these characteristics make the two countries vulnerable in different ways to the competitive pressure by emerging economies, especially China, which experienced the strongest increase in export market share during the last decades. We discuss the impact of China on the export performance of Italy and Germany on OECD markets. Using data for the period 1995-2009, we implement a novel model to account for two important data characteristics: their hierarchical hidden structure (captured by a multilevel model) and the heterogeneity of the export shares (captured by a quantile approach). Results show that Chinese competition on Italy's and Germany's market shares differ by sectors, but, on average, Italy is not more vulnerable than Germany. These results are relevant for policy implications and for an ex-post analysis of the best response' to the Chinese competition.

This paper examines how Chinese firms acquire knowledge and experience in international markets by attracting returnees using an original firm level survey from Guangdong province. It finds that there is a strong and positive relation between a firm's choice of hiring returnees and its propensity to embark in FDI. Moreover, it shows that not all returnees contribute equally to firms' internationalization. It is mainly those individuals in the most strategic functions, such as management and sales to determine both the propensity and the level of overseas direct investment. Finally, it finds that the presence of returnees is particularly effective for less experienced firms since it can help reduce the time taken to build capabilities and provide direct access to the knowledge necessary to invest abroad. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

We empirically analyze the host-country determinants of Chinese outward direct investments (ODI) in the period from 2003 to 2008, using disaggregated data by country and sector and distinguishing between state-owned or controlled enterprises (SOEs) and privately-owned firms. Our results show that the pattern of Chinese ODI differs according to corporate ownership. Private firms are attracted by large markets and host-country strategic assets and are averse to economic and political risks when choosing investment locations abroad. Differently, state-owned or controlled enterprises follow the strategic needs of their home country and invest more in natural resource sectors, being largely indifferent to the political and economic conditions in the host countries.

The empirical literature on China's outward foreign direct investment mainly relies on aggregate data from official statistics, but the reliability of such data is currently a matter of concern because it does not take account of relevant features such as industry breakdown, ownership structure and entry mode. A novel firm-level database, EMENDATA, compiled by matching data from several available sources on various types of cross-border deals and including information on group structure, provides a more accurate picture and enables new empirical analyses of the rapidly increasing presence of Chinese companies abroad. Based on this database, this paper offers a more precise assessment of the geographical and sector specialization patterns of Chinese outward foreign direct investment into Europe and suggests new avenues for future research.

This paper adopts multilevel analysis to study the agglomeration-performance nexus for domestic firms in sub-Saharan Africa. We show that contextual factors can explain up to 30 % of the variance in firms productivity, more than half of which depends on the geographic location. Our results show also that African firms productivity is positively correlated to the size of the agglomeration when they locate in larger cities specialized in different sectors, while the relation turns negative when they face direct competition from firms in the same industry. These effects are similar in the services and the manufacturing industries, even if in the latter positive spillovers are found to be conditional to the presence of backward and forward linkages with nearby firms. Finally, we are able to show that these effects are also confirmed when domestic firms locate close to foreign multinationals, especially those coming from the South.

While structural transformation, driven by technological progress, productivity growth, and capital deepening, has contributed to Asia’s sustained rapid growth, its effect on income inequality is uncertain. The central objective of our paper is to empirically examine the effect of structural change on wage inequality in Asia, using industry-level data for three skill groups of workers. Our evidence indicates that structural change, pushed by productivity catch-up with advanced economies, capital deepness, and the shift of the economic structures to more skill-intensive industries, has exacerbated inequality in the region. However, we also find that policy responses, especially investment in education matching the higher demand for skills and competitive exchange rates, can mitigate the increase in inequality.

The Chile Solidario programme is an innovative conditional cash transfer (CCT) in the Latin American context, aimed at addressing specifically the multidimensional nature of poverty. This paper, using data from the Panel Caracterizacion Socioeconomica Nacional (CASEN) Survey for the years 2001 and 2006, presents an impact evaluation of this programme. Using matching techniques to compare participants in the programme with a control group, and a difference-in-differences estimator, we evaluate its impact on various socioeconomic dimensions and results at the household and child level are differentiated. At the household-level, we find that the programme has a significant impact on lifting families out of extreme poverty and that it does not have disincentive effects on labour participation. For children, we find that it has contributed to increasing participation in school for those between the ages of 6 and 15 years, and to increased enrolment with the public health services. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Published online: 3 February 2009 An important new issue on the international scene is the upsurge in market and non-market South–South relations. The aim of this paper is to understand the dynamics that lie behind the recent Chinese move into Africa by empirically exploring the determinants of Sino-African relationships. In order to have a comprehensive picture, the analysis takes into consideration the main channels of commercial and political interactions: outward foreign direct investment (OFDI), trade and aid (international economic cooperation). The empirical analysis utilises a panel data set, from 1998 to 2005, for 43 African countries. The econometric estimates for three simultaneous equations are based on an instrumental variables method. Results show that the Chinese move into Africa is driven by strategic interaction among the three channels (FDI, trade and economic cooperation) as well as by pull factors, i.e. the characteristics of the receiving countries in terms of natural resource endowments and their market potential.

This paper explores the relation between supply-chain participation and the internationalization of firms. We show that even small and less productive firms, if involved in production chains, can take advantage of reduced costs of entry and economies of scale that enhance their probability of exporting. The empirical analysis is carried out on an Original database, obtained by merging and matching balance-sheet data with data from a survey on over 25,000 Italian firms, which include direct information on the involvement in supply chains. We find a positive and significant relation between being part of a supply chain and the probability of exporting, as well as the intensive margin of trade. The number of foreign markets served (the extensive margin), on the other hand, does not seem to be affected. We also investigate whether being in different positions along the chain, i.e., upstream or downstream, matters, and we find that downstream producers tend to benefit more. Our results are robust to different specifications, estimation methods, and the inclusion of the control variables typically used in heterogeneous firms models.

This paper analyses differences in productivity of foreign affiliates of emerging market multinationals (EMNEs) from the BRICS against their counterparts from developed countries and domestic MNEs. Based on a large database on foreign affiliates in Europe, results find EMNEs at the bottom of the productivity ladder, with an average productivity gap of around 30 percentage points compared to more established competitors. The paper also shows that this effect is not homogeneously distributed since it varies in terms of sectorial distribution and technology intensity of activities performed, as well as by geographic destination. Moreover, firms’ heterogeneity plays a key role given that productivity differentials are largely accounted for the least productive firms, while those at the top of the distribution tend to reach similar performances than their more established competitors, especially in services.

Published online: 15 Apr 2015 This paper analyses the long run determinants of wage inequality in the manufacturing sector for a group of East Asian countries that have experienced rapid structural transformations in recent decades. In line with the skill biased technological change hypothesis, our results show that within manufacturing structural change which fosters the participation of higher skilled workers is a strong determinant of the wage premium. However, the paper also highlights an unusual feature of the East Asian model, showing how well-designed education policies, prudent macroeconomic management and selective policies towards foreign capital can help to buffer the pressure of structural change on wage inequality, even in an open economy context.

Using new firm-level data from the Emerging Multinationals' Events and Networks DATAbase (EMENDATA), this paper investigates the effects on Chinese firms of Outward FDI (OFDI) into advanced European countries. Propensity score matching is combined with a difference-in-difference (DiD) estimator to reduce the problem of self-selection of treated firms in foreign markets, and to eliminate time-invariant and unobservable differences between those firms and the controls. The results provide robust evidence supporting the view that China's OFDI so far have had a positive impact on domestic activities in enhancing firms' productivity and scales of operation, measured by sales and employment. When we distinguish among investments on the basis of entry mode, accounting for endogeneity in the selection process, acquisitions facilitate early access to intangible assets, but are detrimental to financial performance, while greenfield investments have a stronger impact on the scale and productivity of Chinese multinationals investing in Europe.

The Chile Solidario programme is an avant garde conditional cash transfer (CCT) in the Latin American context, introducing innovative features aimed at addressing specifically the multidimensional nature of poverty. This paper, using data from the Panel CASEN Survey for the years 2001 and 2006, presents an impact evaluation of this innovative programme. Using matching techniques to compare participants in the programme with a control group, and a difference-in-difference estimator, its impact on various socio-economic dimensions of well-being is evaluated and results at the household- and child-level are differentiated. At the household level we find that the programme has a significant impact on lifting families out of extreme poverty and that it does not have disincentive effects on labour market participation. For children, we find that the programme has contributed to increasing participation in school for those between the ages of 6 and 15, and to increased enrolment with the public health services.

Introduction. Financial Sector Reform and the International Integration of China: An Overview Zhongmin Wu Part 1: Financial Sector Reform 1. The Internationalization of China's Auditing Standards: Developments and Challenges Jinyu Zhu and Simon S. Gao 2. The Collusive Analysis of Large Shareholders and Managers after China's Shareholder Splitting Reforms Zhenxin Wu, Xufeng Zhang and Shuping Wang 3. Corporate Bond Performance in China and Its Default Spread Xiaobing Feng, Sharon Xiaowen Lin and Feng Zhao 4. Stock Market Liberalization and Liquidity: Firm Level Evidence from the Chinese Market Wei Huang 5. Analysis into IPO Underpricing and Clustering in Hong Kong Equity Market Yongyuan Qiao 6. China's RMB Exchange Rate Regime Option, Capital Integration, and Financial Development Ping He 7. Testing for Credit Restrictions in Chinese Agriculture Xiaoli Liu 8. Influence of FDI on Financial Stability of China: Su-Kun Pan 9. An Analysis of China's Derivatives Market and Accounting for Derivatives Zhen Huang & Simon Gao Part 2: The International Integration of China 10. The long-term growth effects of the Olympic Games in Beijing - A theoretical investigation of growth channels of mega-events Tobias Birkendorf 11. An Empirical Analysis of the Chinese Move to Africa Mario Biggeri and Marco Sanfilippo 12. Chinese Firms enter Europe: Some Empirical Evidence F. Hay, C. Milelli and Y. Shi 13. The Factors Limiting the Overseas Listing of Chinese Privately-owned Enterprises: The Ningbo Case Jianying Tian and Weiqi Shen 14. China's Integration into a Global Economy: A Case of Natural Economic Development or the Deliberate Outcome of Political Decisions to Re-legitimise the Leading Role of the CCP? Christian Ploberger 15. Globalization, North-South Industrial Location and Environment Competition Rieber Arsene and Tran Thi Anh-Dao 16. Foreign R&D Spillovers and Total Factor Productivity in the East Asian Manufacturing Industry Hailin Liao, Xiaohui Liu and Tom Weyman-Jones. Concluding Remarks