Imports and productivity: the impact of geography and factor intensity. Issue 4 (19th May 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: van den Berg, Marcel; van Marrewijk, Charles
• Is Part Of: Journal of international trade & economic development. Volume 26:Issue 4(2017)
• Page Start: 425
• Page End: 450
• Publication Date: 2017-05-19
• Subjects: Firm heterogeneity -- imports -- productivity -- geography -- factor intensity; D22 -- F14 -- F23; International trade -- Periodicals; Economic development -- Periodicals; 337
• DOI: 10.1080/09638199.2016.1263359
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0963-8199

Abstract

ABSTRACT: 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.