TY - JOUR
T1 - Imports and productivity
T2 - the impact of geography and factor intensity
AU - van den Berg, Marcel
AU - van Marrewijk, Charles
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2017/5/19
Y1 - 2017/5/19
N2 - Usingmicro-data for Dutch firms, we argue that both the geographic component (what country is the import from) and the intensity component (what type of good is imported) is crucial for measuring and understanding productivity premia associated with importing. For example, our results indicate that the productivity premium associated with importing technology-intensive products from Taiwan differs from importing unskilled-labor-intensive products from Switzerland. We show that increasing distance and decreasing levels of development of the origin economy are negatively associated with the productivity premia of importing. Similarly, these premia are larger for technology- intensive goods and smaller for unskilled-labor-intensive goods. This implies that the geographic-intensity markets are unique and cannot be lumped together. In addition, a more dispersed import portfolio (the extensive dimension) is always positively associated with firm-level productivity.
AB - Usingmicro-data for Dutch firms, we argue that both the geographic component (what country is the import from) and the intensity component (what type of good is imported) is crucial for measuring and understanding productivity premia associated with importing. For example, our results indicate that the productivity premium associated with importing technology-intensive products from Taiwan differs from importing unskilled-labor-intensive products from Switzerland. We show that increasing distance and decreasing levels of development of the origin economy are negatively associated with the productivity premia of importing. Similarly, these premia are larger for technology- intensive goods and smaller for unskilled-labor-intensive goods. This implies that the geographic-intensity markets are unique and cannot be lumped together. In addition, a more dispersed import portfolio (the extensive dimension) is always positively associated with firm-level productivity.
KW - factor intensity
KW - Firm heterogeneity
KW - geography
KW - imports
KW - productivity
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85004140755&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/09638199.2016.1263359
DO - 10.1080/09638199.2016.1263359
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85004140755
SN - 0963-8199
VL - 26
SP - 425
EP - 450
JO - Journal of International Trade and Economic Development
JF - Journal of International Trade and Economic Development
IS - 4
ER -