دانلود رایگان مقاله انگلیسی درباره رابطه کیفیت و سودمندی: اجلاس چین در سازمان تجارت جهانی - الزویر 2018

ABSTRACT

This paper presents an analysis of the effect of China’s entry into the WTO on the quality choices of Chinese exporters in terms of their outputs and their inputs. Using highly disaggregated firm-level data, we show that the quality upgrading made possible by China’s tariff reductions was concentrated in the least productive Chinese exporters. These firms, which had been laggards in terms of quality prior to the tariff reduction, were the most aggressive in increasing the quality of their exports and their inputs and in redirecting their exports toward high income markets where demand for high quality goods is strong. Our empirical results are consistent with a simple model featuring scale effect and non-Hicks’ neutral productivity that disproportionately affects the efficiency with which firms use intermediate inputs. This latter feature does not appear in workhorse models of firm heterogeneity and endogenous quality choice which provide a distorted view of the impact of trade liberalization on quality upgrading.

Conclusion

This paper studies the relationship between quality and productivity under trade liberalization and highlights the heterogeneous response across firms to import tariff reductions. We use highly disaggregated firm-product-level data and the shock of China’s entry into the WTO to trace through the manner in which trade liberalization on intermediate inputs induced Chinese firms to upgrade their input and output quality. We find that quality upgrading is primarily achieved by the initially less successful Chinese firms. In other words, the chief beneficiaries of liberalized intermediate input tariffs are not the initially most productive firms but are instead the less productive firms that are operating in industries in which the scope for quality variation is the most pronounced. When initially more capable firms run into diminishing returns to quality upgrading, it is precisely those lower productivity firms that are most likely to upgrade the quality of their exports, increase the quality of their imported intermediates, and upgrade their workforces. They are also more aggressive in entering new, high income markets where demand for high quality goods is strong along the extensive margin. As a result, the gap between low and high productivity firms regarding their quality performance would be reduced under an import tariff reduction. In this sense, trade liberalization appears to have evened the playing field with respect to firm performance.