scholarly journals Trade liberalization and firm-level productivity: A panel data analysis of the Indian iron-steel industry

2018 ◽  
Vol 63 (219) ◽  
pp. 7-32
Author(s):  
Sanjay Mangla

The iron-steel industry in India contributes about 3% of gross domestic product and provides employment for more than half a million people. However, although steel production in India has increased at a trend growth rate of 7.83% during the post-reform period between 1991-1992 and 2012-2013, this does not necessarily indicate efficient utilization of production factors, as it can also result from a higher level of inputs. Therefore, it is important to record productivity growth and identify its determinants. This study estimates total factor productivity (from firm-level data) in the Indian iron-steel industry and examines the impact of trade liberalization (measured as decline in input tariffs, output tariffs, and effective protection rate) on productivity during the abovementioned period.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
John (Jianqiu) Bai

This paper studies how firms’ internal organization shapes the impact of international trade. Using establishment-level data from the U.S. Census and a difference-in-difference specification, I find that, relative to standalone firms, conglomerates are more likely to restructure after trade liberalization episodes, focusing on their core competency and improving firm productivity and product market performance. Adjustments through the extensive margin account for the majority of the productivity growth differential between conglomerates and standalones experiencing trade shocks. Aggregate industry productivity remains relatively unchanged in industries dominated by conglomerates’ core business but decreases significantly in others. My findings suggest that firms’ internal organization has important consequences on the effects of trade policies. This paper was accepted by Gustavo Manso, finance.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 2579 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ling-Yun He ◽  
Liang Wang

This paper investigates how the import liberalization of intermediates affects firm-level pollution emissions. We divide the impact of freer import of intermediates on pollution emissions into induced scale, composition and technique effects and then develop interaction terms to examine these effects. Relying on a panel of plant-level data from China manufacturing sector for the period 2001 to 2007, we find freer import of intermediate inputs is conducive to pollution reductions at the plant level, lowering pollution via induced technique and composition effects and, in turn, increasing emission through induced scale effect. In summary, import liberalization of intermediate inputs can contribute to the better environmental performance of China manufacturing sector.


2005 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathy Cannings

The dual-career family, with its attendant pressures for dual commitment to the home and to the career, has become an increasingly important phenomenon in recent decades. This paper uses a firm-level data set to examine the impact of family commitments as well as cognitive, behavioral, and organizational factors on the earnings of 519 married middle managers in a large Canadian corporation. Alongside a number of behavioral variables as well as the functional division of managerial labor in the company, division of labor in the employee's household has a significant impact on managerial earnings. The inclusion of a variable reflecting the household division of labor in the managerial earnings function helps to explain a substantial proportion of the earnings disadvantage of women in this company that might otherwise simply be attributed to gender.


2007 ◽  
Vol 45 (4) ◽  
pp. 647-679 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tegegne Gebre-Egziabher

ABSTRACTThe footwear sector in Ethiopia is dominated by cheap imports from Asia, particularly from China. This has inflicted heavy impacts on the sector, and threatened its competitiveness in the domestic market. This study examines the impact of imports and coping strategies of firms to withstand the competition. Firm level data were gathered from micro, small and medium footwear enterprises. The findings revealed that Chinese shoes are superior in design, price and quality, with the result that they have taken over the domestic market. The impact of Chinese imports on local producers varied from downsizing, bankruptcy, loss of assets and property, to downgrading activities and informalising operations. Firms have pursued coping strategies that focused on improving design and quality, as well as lowering prices and profit margins. Coping strategies appear to be differentiated by size of firms, and have some association with the performance of firms. The ways forward for local producers should focus on collaborative engagements of stakeholders and government to overcome the competitive disadvantages of firms. Training, technology, quality control, benchmarking and reorganization of production should be designed as a package of intervention. In addition, strengthening local producers to engage in collective actions and promoting exports should also be given proper attention.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 439-460
Author(s):  
Stephen Esaku ◽  
Waldo Krugell

We analyze the impact of trade liberalization on firm productivity growth in Kenya’s manufacturing sector, using a panel spanning 8 years; 1992-1999. Our analysis reveals that liberalizing trade generates high productivity improvements in the manufacturing sector. We find that a one-unit reduction in import duties as a percentage of total imports significantly increases firm-level productivity in the manufacturing sector by 5.7%. When we examine this effect on the firm’s share of exported output, we find that lowering of import duties significantly increases the share of output exported by 0.7%. Further, we sought to assess how the effect of import duties varied across the different industries in our sample. Examining the effect of import duties on industrial performance, we find a negative and statistically significant relationship in some of the industries. Our results show heterogeneous effect of reduction of import duties on industrial performance. Not all industries benefited from the lowering of import duties, especially the food and bakery, and garment industry, where productivity did not increase. These findings have important policy implications for improving the manufacturing sector. Consequently, formulating policies that effectively relax restrictive barriers to trade in the economy could speed up firm-level productivity in the manufacturing sector.


ILR Review ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
pp. 174-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Devicienti ◽  
Paolo Naticchioni ◽  
Andrea Ricci

This article investigates the effect of workplace unionization and product market volatility on firms’ propensity to use temporary employment. Using Italian firm-level data, the authors show that volatility has a positive impact on the share of temporary contracts. The baseline estimates for the impact of unions are inconclusive, but a clear pattern emerges when a specification including an interaction term with volatility is used. This approach allows a richer characterization of the impact of workplace unionization, which is positive for low levels of volatility and negative for high levels. The authors discuss various direct and indirect mechanisms to explain this novel finding. Furthermore, they find that these effects hold only for cases in which the employer does not provide training for temporary workers, whereas temporary contracts with training provisions are not affected by unions, volatility, and their interplay.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document