Product quality and firm heterogeneity in international trade

Product Quality, Firm Heterogeneity and International Trade∗

I explore variation in price and export status in industries where I can estimate product quality and technical efficiency separately. The empirical results show that prices are increasing in quality and decreasing in efficiency and that selection into exporting is driven mainly by quality. Firms export because they generate more demand for their products, not because they can produce at lower ...

Technical Appendix: Product Quality and Firm Heterogeneity in International Trade (Not For Publication)

Competing in Organizations: Firm Heterogeneity and International Trade

This paper develops a theory which investigates how firms’ choice of corporate organization is affecting firm performance and the nature of competition in international markets. We develop a model in which firms’ organisational choices determine heterogeneity across firms in size and productivity in the same industry. We then incorporate these organisational choices in a Krugman cumMelitz and O...

The Empirics of Firm Heterogeneity and International Trade

This paper reviews the empirical evidence on firm heterogeneity in international trade. A first wave of empirical findings from micro data on plants and firms proposed challenges for existing models of international trade and inspired the development of new theories emphasizing firm heterogeneity. Subsequent empirical research has examined additional predictions of these theories and explored o...

Firm Heterogeneity, International Cooperations and Export Participation Firm Heterogeneity, International Cooperations and Export Participation

The paper investigates the relationship between firms’ international cooperation strategies and export decision. It proposes a refinement of Melitz (2003) model of firm heterogeneity and trade according to which prospective exporters must engage in a cooperation agreement with a foreign partner in order to favour their market access and distribution activities overseas. The paper analyses the e...