Export duration and export product quality of firms: evidence from China

ABSTRACT

This study analyzes how export duration affects firms’ export product quality. On the basis of Chinese firms’ micro data, we find that export duration has a significantly positive effect on the export product quality of firms by promoting their productivity and innovation ability. This study shows that the effect of export duration on the product quality of firms is not only reflected in the stage when they enter the export market. After entering the export market, the extension of export duration is also conducive to the improvement of firms’ product quality, supporting the wide presence of the effects of learning by exporting. Therefore, this study provides new empirical evidence to further understand the influence of export market on firms’ product quality.

KEYWORDS:

• Export duration
• product quality
• learning by exporting
• innovation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ Before estimating the quality of export products, we used the conversion table provided by the Department of Social and Economic Affairs of United Nations to convert the HS codes of all products during the sample period to the HS2002 version.

² The first-differenced GMM method only estimates differential equations, whereas the Blundell – Bond system GMM method estimates differential and horizontal equations. Compared with the first-differenced GMM method, the Blundell – Bond system GMM method can better avoid the problem of weak instrumental variables. Therefore, this study will mainly employ the system GMM method to estimate Equation. (8).

³ The product-level tariff data come from the Shanghai WTO Affairs Center.

Additional information

Funding

Youth Science Fund Project of National Science Foundation of China (No. 71903076); The MOE (Ministry of Education in China) Project of Humanities and Social Sciences (No. 23YJC790183).

Notes on contributors

Wen Yue

Wen Yue, a professor at School of Business, Jiangnan University, China. His email is [email protected]. Wen holds a PhD (2016) in applied economics from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China; a BS degree (2011) in economics from Nanjing University, China. His interest research topics are international trade and industrial organization.