Cross-country Firm-level Data Research Articles

Bribery, global value chain decisions, and institutional constraints: Evidence from a cross-country firm-level data

We employ a multi-country firm-level data covering 109 developing countries during the 2005–2017 period to investigate the effect of bribery on the global value chain (GVC) decision for firms and the moderating roles of firm size and institutional constraints in such relationships. In this research, we treat the GVC participation as a strategic choice and GVC firms are defined as two-way traders who export and import simultaneously and hold a quality certification. We also distinguish GVC decisions into GVC participation decisions that firms decide to carry out GVC activities and GVC switching decisions that firms decide to switch from non-GVC to GVC status. Institutional constraints are firms' self-ration on corruption, political stability, court, and customs and trade regulations. Our empirical findings support the “greasing-the-wheels-of-GVC” hypothesis that greasing bribery positively influences the GVC participation and switching probability. Paying greasing bribes only improves the small and medium-sized firms’ probability of becoming GVC actors if there is no institutional constraint. With sufficiently strong bargaining power, large-sized firms grasp more benefits from bribe payments even in the weak and poor institutional system, thus becoming a part of global supply chains. Finally, when we control the endogeneity, the impacts of greasing become more sizable and we find evidence for the “sanding-the-wheels-of-GVC” hypothesis of rent-seeking bribery.

Trade credit and global value chain: Evidence from cross-country firm-level data

This paper investigates the effect of joining the global value chain (GVC) on trade credit by using the World Bank Enterprise Survey (WBES) for 55 countries from 2003 to 2019. GVC participation reflects status when a firm is a two-way trader and owns a quality certificate. When exporting, a firm may extend trade credit to its customer (account receivable). When importing, a firm may receive trade credit from its suppliers (account payables). Taking into consideration endogeneity due to reverse causality, our empirical results show the positive effects of GVC participation on the use of trade credit. When a firm participates in GVC, it is more likely to receive trade credit from its suppliers, extend trade credit to its customers, and simultaneously be involved in both types of trade credit. These effects become pronounced for financially-constrained firms, especially for small and medium-sized firms. Our findings suggest that one of the firms’ incentives to participate in the global supply chain is to overcome liquidity shortages.

Digital adoption and efficiency in the maritime industry

The COVID-19 pandemic has augmented pre-existing digitalization and environmental trends. In the maritime industry, one of the marked impacts of the pandemic is how the regard for technology has changed. There is now greater appetite and acceptance of digital solutions across the industry. This study investigates the ways the adoption of a series of digital technologies impact shipping firms’ efficiency, that will shed light on how industry stakeholders may derive value from data solutions, for making better operational decisions. We use cross-country firm-level data to evaluate the efficiency effects of maritime industry-level digital adoption. The results provide robust proof that working in a digitalized ecosystem is a way to promote efficiency, though not to the same extent across shipping firms and divisions. Impacts are relatively stronger in water transport activities than warehousing/support activities for transportation. Digital technologies may add to the growing diffusion in efficiency across shipping firms.

Correction to: Bribes, market power and access to credit: evidence from cross-country firm-level data

Correction to: Bribes, market power and access to credit: evidence from cross-country firm-level data

Bribes, market power and access to credit: evidence from cross-country firm-level data

Bribes, market power and access to credit: evidence from cross-country firm-level data

Bribery, export decisions, and institutional constraints: Evidence from cross-country firm-level data

This paper uses multi-country, firm-level data covering 109 countries for the period 2005 to 2017, to examine the effects of bribery on export decisions for firms facing institutional constraints. Bribery consists of “greasing” and rent-seeking behavior. Firms’ self-evaluations of the extent of obstacles affecting their business operations, including corruption, political instability, tax administration, and business license regulations, were used to capture the institutional constraints. Our empirical results provide evidence to support the “greasing-the-wheels-of-trade” hypothesis. The positive effect of greasing bribery is particularly sizable for large-sized firms or those facing no institutional constraints. In other words, firms with strong bargaining power proxied by firm size obtain more benefits from paying bribes if there are no institutional constraints; thus, they are more likely to export. These results hold when we specify almost all types of institutional constraints except for political instability. Lastly, when the endogeneity problem is controlled, the effect of greasing bribery becomes pronounced.

Cash-in-advance, export decision and financial constraints: Evidence from cross-country firm-level data

This paper investigates the relationship between Cash In Advance (CIA) and firms’ export participation, particularly in the presence of financial constraints. Using the firm-level data covering 56 countries for the period from 2006 to 2010, we detect the positive correlation of the employment of CIA and the export participation of small and medium-sized firms only. This correlation becomes more prominent for severely credit-constrained firms. One possible explanation is that CIA raises the export possibility of small and medium-sized firms by ameliorating credit constraints while it plays no role in large-sized ones.

Revisiting the relationship between corruption and innovation in developing and emerging economies

This study estimates the relationship of institutional (judicial and political) and monetary (petty and grand) dimensions of corruption with six different types of innovations. Using cross country firm level data from World Bank Enterprise Survey for 16 developing and emerging economies, the study reveals that, in most of the cases, monetary dimensions of corruption grease the wheels of the innovations involving interactions with public offices and have an insignificant or negative association in opposite cases. Results show that corruption is disproportionately associated with the innovative activities of firms operating in different industrial groups devised as per Castellacci (Research Policy, 37(6), 978–994, 2008). Interestingly, both monetary dimensions of corruption are positively correlated with major innovation indicators in SMEs. Large firms are more the victims of the monetary corruption. Furthermore, innovation in the services sector is more harmed by petty corruption than is innovation in the manufacturing sector. Services firms seem to be taking advantage of grand corruption. Judicial corruption is found to be positively associated with most of the innovation indicators, highlighting the loopholes in the judicial system. Moreover, political corruption benefits both SMEs and large firms in most of their innovative activities. In the end, the study provides important policy insights from the analysis.

Financial Frictions and the Great Productivity Slowdown

Abstract We study the role of financial frictions for productivity. Using a rich cross-country firm-level data, we exploit variation in preexisting exposure to the 2008 global financial crisis to study the post-crisis productivity slowdown. Firms with weaker precrisis balance sheets experienced a highly persistent decline in post-crisis total factor productivity growth relative to their less vulnerable counterparts, accounting for about one-third of the within-firm productivity slowdown. This decline was larger for firms that faced a more severe tightening of credit conditions. Financially fragile firms cut back on innovation activities, one channel through which financial frictions weakened post-crisis productivity growth.

Risk versus ambiguity and international security design

We study portfolio allocation and characterize contracts issued by firms in the international financial market when investors exhibit ambiguity aversion and perceive ambiguity in assets issued in foreign locations. Increases in the variance of their risky production process cause firms to issue assets with a higher variable payment (equity). Hikes in investors' perceived ambiguity have the opposite effect, and lead to less risk-sharing. Entrepreneurs from capital-scarce countries finance themselves relatively more through debt than equity. They are thus exposed to higher volatility per unit of consumption. The expected returns on capital invested in capital-scarce countries may also be lower. Such results do not hold in the absence of ambiguity, that is, when investors only perceive risk. New facts uncovered from cross-country firm-level data are consistent with our model.

The Structure of Political Institutions and Effectiveness of Corporate Political Lobbying

This paper investigates how the structure of political institutions influences the effectiveness of corporate political lobbying by shaping the “veto points” and “entry points” that lobbying firms encounter and require, respectively, when attempting to influence public policies; in so doing, this study deepens our understanding of the strategic implications of institutional environments. Using large-sample and cross-country firm-level data, we find that the influence of firms’ lobbying activities on public policies is weakened when there are tighter constraints generated as a result of greater political (partisan) competition and more subnational government tiers. We find that the negative association between the effectiveness of lobbying and political (partisan) competition is particularly pronounced in countries with lower electoral accountability and that the negative association between the effectiveness of lobbying and subnational government tiers is particularly pronounced in more centralized political systems.

More is Better! What Can Firm-Specific Estimates of the Impact of Institutional Quality on Performance Tell Us?

We introduce a novel approach to modeling the impact of institutional quality on firm performance. Our methodology enables us to estimate the marginal effect of institutional quality on TFP, factor inputs and output of each firm, which gives us within-country distributions of these effects and hence a better picture of the winners and losers associated with a particular level of institutional quality. We are also able to model marginal impact of institutional quality on both TFP and the efficiency of use of factor inputs, and hence on output. This is a departure from stylized approaches that focus on the impact on TFP alone, and our approach therefore informs policy discussions about the impact of institutional quality (and their change) on shares of factor inputs in the output. We use cross-country firm-level data for the textiles and garments sector to demonstrate the advantages of this modeling approach in analyzing the impact of institutional quality.

Payment Choice in International Trade: Theory and Evidence from Cross-Country Firm Level Data

When trading, firms choose between different payment contracts. As shown theoretically in Schmidt-Eisenlohr (forthcoming), this allows firms in international trade to optimally trade-off differences in financing costs and enforcement across countries. This paper provides evidence from a large number of countries that shows that country characteristics are indeed central determinants of the payment contract choice. As predicted, the use of open account decreases in financing costs and contract enforcement in the source country. We extend the theory and test two additional predictions. First, we show that the more complex the industry of a firm, the more important is the quality of contract enforcement and the less important are the financing costs for the contract choice. Second, we compare direct and indirect exporters and find evidence that suggests that intermediaries play a relevant role in contract enforcement across borders.

Payment Choice in International Trade: Theory and Evidence from Cross-Country Firm Level Data

When trading, firms choose between different payment contracts. As shown theoretically in Schmidt-Eisenlohr (Forthcoming), this allows firms in international trade to optimally trade-off differences in financing costs and enforcement across countries. This paper provides evidence from a large number of countries that shows that country characteristics are indeed central determinants of the payment contract choice. As predicted, the use of open account decreases in financing costs and contract enforcement in the source country. We extend the theory and test two additional predictions. First, we show that the more complex the industry of a firm, the more important is the quality of contract enforcement and the less important are the financing costs for the contract choice. Second, we compare direct and indirect exporters and find evidence that suggests that intermediaries play a relevant role in contract enforcement across borders.

Does Institutional Quality Affect Firm Performance? Insights from a Semi-Parametric Approach

Using a novel modeling approach, and cross-country firm level data for the textiles industry, we examine the impact of institutional quality on firm performance. Our methodology allows us to estimate the marginal impact of institutional quality on productivity of each firm. Our results bring into question conventional wisdom about the desirable characteristics of market institutions, which is based on empirical evidence about the impact of institutional quality on the average firm. We demonstrate, for example, that once both the direct impact of a change in institutional quality on total factor productivity and the indirect impact through changes in efficiency of use of factor inputs are taken into account, an increase in labor market rigidity may have a positive impact on firm output, at least for some firms. We also demonstrate that there are significant intra-country variations in the marginal impact of institutional quality, such that the characteristics of “winners” and “losers” will have to be taken into account before policy is introduced to change institutional quality in any direction.

Does Human Capital Endowment of FDI Recipient Countries Really Matter? Evidence from Cross-Country Firm Level Data

The stylized literature on foreign direct investment suggests that developing countries should invest in the human capital of their labour force in order to attract foreign direct investment. However, if educational quality in developing country is uncertain such that formal education is a noisy signal of human capital, it might be rational for multinational enterprises to focus more on job-specific training than on formal education of the labour force. Using cross-country data from the textiles and garments industry, we demonstrate that training indeed has greater impact on firm efficiency in developing countries than formal education of the work force.

Determinants of Corporate Investment in China: Evidence from Cross-Country Firm Level Data

This paper analyzes the evolution of investment in China, its main features, and its key determinants. In recent years, manufacturing, real estate, and infrastructure have been the main drivers of investment. Investment remains largely concentrated in coastal areas, but there has been a shift to greater investments inland in recent years. The empirical analysis of the determinants of investment indicates that financial variables, such as interest rates, the exchange rate, and the depth of the domestic capital market are important determinants of corporate investment. The results suggest in particular that financial sector reform, including that which deregulates and raises real interest rates as well as appreciates the real effective exchange rate, would lower investment and help rebalance growth away from exports and investment toward private consumption.

Determinants of Corporate Investment in China: Evidence From Cross-Country Firm Level Data

This paper analyzes the evolution of investment in China, its main features, and its key determinants. In recent years, manufacturing, real estate, and infrastructure have been the main drivers of investment. Investment remains largely concentrated in coastal areas, but there has been a shift to greater investments inland in recent years. The empirical analysis of the determinants of investment indicates that financial variables, such as interest rates, the exchange rate, and the depth of the domestic capital market are important determinants of corporate investment. The results suggest in particular that financial sector reform, including that which deregulates and raises real interest rates as well as appreciates the real effective exchange rate, would lower investment and help rebalance growth away from exports and investment toward private consumption.

Does Human Capital Endowment of FDI Recipient Countries Really Matter? Evidence from Cross-Country Firm Level Data

The stylized literature on foreign direct investment suggests that developing countries should invest in the human capital of their labour force in order to attract foreign direct investment. However, if educational quality in developing country is uncertain such that formal education is a noisy signal of human capital, it might be rational for multinational enterprises to focus more on job-specific training than on formal education of the labour force. Using cross-country data from the textiles and garments industry, we demonstrate that training indeed has greater impact on firm efficiency in developing countries than formal education of the work force.

Does Institutional Quality Affect Firm Performance? Insights from a Semiparametric Approach

Using a novel modeling approach, and cross-country firm level data for the textiles industry, we examine the impact of institutional quality on firm performance. Our methodology allows us to estimate the marginal impact of institutional quality on productivity of each firm. Our results bring into question conventional wisdom about the desirable characteristics of market institutions, which is based on empirical evidence about the impact of institutional quality on the average firm. We demonstrate, for example, that once both the direct impact of a change in institutional quality on total factor productivity and the indirect impact through changes in efficiency of use of factor inputs are taken into account, an increase in labor market rigidity may have a positive impact on firm output, at least for some firms. We also demonstrate that there are significant intra-country variations in the marginal impact of institutional quality, such that the characteristics of winners and losers will have to be taken into account before policy is introduced to change institutional quality in any direction.