Export Behavior Research Articles

Hydrometric data discretization into environmental flow components: a new, practical approach to explore concentration-discharge relationships

The intricate dynamics of streamflow and water quality are often explored through the lens of concentration-discharge (C-Q) relationships. Interpreting C-Q relationships and using mathematical models to explain them can, however, be challenging due to hysteresis effects, low-frequency data, or noisy data. To address these challenges, this study introduces a noise-filtering approach by aggregating discrete data collected over several years into bins corresponding to distinct environmental flow components (EFCs). Covering a spectrum from extreme low flows to small and large floods, this method simplifies C-Q analysis by focusing on watershed hydrochemical responses to varying flow conditions. The objectives of the study were to explore the variability of stream water quality across a gradient of EFCs, categorize watersheds based on their median dominant export behaviour type (e.g. dilution, mobilization, chemostatic), and evaluate the predictability of export behaviour type from watershed characteristics. The study relied on 30 watersheds located in Québec, Canada, ranging in size from 11 to 2610 km2, with daily streamflow data and at least monthly water quality data spanning at least two years over the 1989-2020 period. EFC-specific summary statistics for dissolved organic carbon (DOC), total nitrogen (TN), and total phosphorus (TP) concentrations were computed and used to assess C-Q relationships and classify the general tendencies of watershed export behaviour. Results reveal nuances in watershed export behaviour depending on the specific water quality parameter and flow components assessed. Some differences in watershed hydrobiogeochemical behaviours could be explained by differences in watershed physiographic characteristics. The EFC-based approach to C-Q analysis provides watershed scientists and managers with a simple and comprehensive tool to utilize existing data, enabling a deeper understanding of watershed nutrient export dynamics.

Firm heterogeneity and export behavior: evidence from Tunisia

ABSTRACT We use unique enterprise survey data to explore the export behavior of firms in Tunisia, a small, trade-dependent country with a complex policy environment regarding exporting. Firms may export directly or indirectly through intermediaries, and can also sell to ‘offshore’ firms, which are export manufacturing firms with special legal status. Firm size, a proxy for productivity, is strongly associated with exporting of either type as well as with sales to offshore firms. In contrast to some studies, exporting is not positively associated with firm age (i.e., experience). Domestic-owned firms are more likely to use intermediaries to export while foreign-owned firms as well as those with more educated managers are more likely to export directly. Multinomial logit results reject the hypothesis of progression from indirect exports through direct plus indirect exporting and then to direct-only exporting as firm size increases; instead, the largest exporting firms are more likely to combine direct and indirect exporting, possibly to reduce risk. The findings from this study – the first to examine the heterogeneity of exporting behavior in Tunisia – reveal a complex picture of such behavior and confirm the importance of trade intermediaries for less sophisticated firms (those with lower manager education and internet access), pointing to potential measures to encourage exporting among such enterprises. The findings also suggest that efforts to encourage exporting may also improve firms’ ability to sell to ‘offshore’ firms, enhancing the so far elusive linkages of that sector with the rest of the economy.

STRUCTURAL AND STOCHASTIC BEHAVIOR OF MEXICAN AGRICULTURAL EXPORTS

Mexican agricultural exports have grown faster than the country’s economy, suggesting a foreign exchange inflow and the use of production factors in Mexico. This work examines both the structural behavior of the agricultural exports and its stochastic behavior using data from 1993 to 2023. The structural part is modeled with three explanatory behaviors: first, the influence in exports of the U.S. economy through its Gross Domestic Product (GDP); second, the effect of the Mexican economy through its own GDP; and third, the search for a more profitable price abroad was modeled with the real exchange rate. On the other hand, the stochastic behavior was modeled with lags of the actual exports and other explanatory variables. After adjusting an autoregressive distributed lag model and verifying the existence of a long-term relationship between Mexican agricultural exports, U.S. GDP, Mexican GDP, and the real exchange rate, it was found that the behavior of the export growth is largely explained by the U.S. economy.

A multi-commodity partial equilibrium model of imperfect competition in future global hydrogen markets

Techno-economic studies are investigating procurement costs of hydrogen and related derivatives across various international trade routes. However, the strategic behavior of exporters is rarely considered in this context, despite similar behavior frequently observed in the fossil fuel world and market characteristics indicating some potential. This work introduces a novel techno-economic model of oligopolistic trade tailored around the value chain of potential future global hydrogen markets. It is formulated as a mixed complementarity problem with a convex reformulation, allowing to solve both competitive and oligopolistic equilibria much beyond the capabilities of traditional complementarity models. Illustrative results show that assuming perfectly competitive price formation in early phases of future global hydrogen markets may lead to overly optimistic hydrogen price projections. This is especially the case within Europe, Japan, and South Korea. In contrast, strategically withholding quantities in export may decrease prices for some domestic markets.

The impact of digital transformation on enterprise export resilience: Evidence from China

External shocks have negatively affected trade activities around the world, how to improve the enterprise's anti-risk ability to external shocks has gained widespread attention. This study explores whether and how the digital transformation affects enterprise export resilience after the 2008 financial crisis. By expanding an export growth model and utilizing a merged dataset from the Chinese customs trade and A-share listed company database, we find that digital transformation significantly enhances export resilience, and this effect is more prominent in private enterprise as well as high-tech enterprise types. The mechanism analysis shows that digital transformation promotes enterprise export resilience through cost reduction and demand diversification channels. In addition, the effect of digital transformation is more evident on enterprises exporting to high-income countries. Furthermore, this paper finds that the smart city pilot policy has strengthened the promoting effect of digital transformation on enterprise export resilience. These findings shed insights into the relationship between the digital transformation and enterprise's export behavior in the post-crisis era.

Impact of International Food Standards on Firms’ Export Behavior: A Case of Indian Marine Industry

Exporters of food products face stringent standards due to the possibility of contaminations and diseases. Standards are complex, varying across countries, time and stage of production. The cost of compliance is, typically, borne by the exporting firm. This paper examines the impact of international food standards on the export behavior of Indian marine firms. Standards negatively affect the value of exports and participation in trade. Further, there is a heterogeneous impact of standards. Relatively larger, profitable and productive firms are able to comply with the standards and gain from them. The long-term implication could be the concentration of market power in this industry.

Assessing trade supply chain vulnerability and trade participation of SMEs in India: insights from a comprehensive analysis

PurposeThis study presents the impact of Economic Policy Uncertainty (EPU)-induced Trade Supply Chain Vulnerability (TSCV) on the Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in India by leveraging the World Bank Enterprise Survey data for 2014 and 2022. Applying econometric techniques, it examines firm size’ influence on productivity and trade participation, providing insights for enhancing SME resilience and trade participation amid uncertainty.Design/methodology/approachThe econometric techniques focus on export participation, along with variables such as total exports, firm size, productivity, and capital intensity. It addresses crucial factors such as the direct import of intermediate goods and foreign ownership. Utilizing the Cobb-Douglas production function, the study estimates Total Factor Productivity, mitigating endogeneity and multicollinearity through a two-stage process. Besides, the study uses a case study of North Indian SMEs engaged in manufacturing activities and their adoption of mitigation strategies to combat unprecedented EPU.FindingsResults reveal that EPU-induced TSCV reduces exports, impacting employment and firm size. Increased productivity, driven by technological adoption, correlates with improved export performance. The study highlights the negative impact of TSCV on trade participation, particularly for smaller Indian firms. Moreover, SMEs implement cost-based, supplier-based, and inventory-based strategies more than technology-based and risk-based strategies.Practical implicationsPolicy recommendations include promoting increased imports and inward foreign direct investment to enhance small firms’ trade integration during economic uncertainty. Tailored support for smaller firms, considering their limited capacity, is crucial. Encouraging small firms to engage in international trade and adopting diverse SC mitigation strategies associated with policy uncertainty are vital considerations.Originality/valueThis study explores the impact of EPU-induced TSCV on Indian SMEs’ trade dynamics, offering nuanced insights for policymakers to enhance SME resilience amid uncertainty. The econometric analysis unveils patterns in export behavior, productivity, and factors influencing trade participation during economic uncertainty.

Accelerated depreciation tax policy and multiple-product firms’ export behaviour: evidence from China

ABSTRACT Using the 2014 accelerated depreciation tax policy (ADP) in China as a quasi-natural experiment, this study examines ADP’s impact on multiple-product firms’ export behaviour. Using data on Chinese A-share listed multiple-product companies from 2011 to 2016, we find that ADP enhances export product quality and reduces the unit price of export products by increasing enterprise innovation, accelerating ‘machine replacing labours’, and realizing the ‘economies of scale effect’. Notably, these effects are pronounced in cost-based competence firm. These findings provide developing countries with insights into the use of ADP to encourage high-quality export development.

Enhancing export resilience through smart cities: a city-level quasi-natural experiment in China

ABSTRACT Faced with currently numerous uncertainties at home and abroad, the construction of new infrastructure plays a critical role in enhancing region’s ability to cope with external shocks. Based on resilience perspective, this paper takes smart city pilot as a quasi-natural experiment and utilizes time-varying difference-in-difference (DID) model to investigate the policy effect on city export resilience in ChinA. Research shows that smart city pilot significantly improves city’s anti-risk ability after external shocks, which is manifested as stronger export resilience in pilot cities. Mechanism tests show that smart city pilot promotes export resilience through diversification, efficiency-improved, and innovation-driven channels. Moreover, the effect of smart city pilot is more evident on cities in central and western regions, as well as exporting to high-income countries. These findings shed new insights into the relationship between the smart city pilot and city export behaviour and provide references for Chinese government to promote export upgrading in the post-crisis erA.

Domestic market integration and multi-product firms’ export behaviours: evidence from China

ABSTRACT This study investigates the effects of domestic market integration (DMI) on corporate export behaviour. Utilizing a regional DMI index and data from Chinese A-share listed multi-product firms between 2006 and 2015, we find that DMI expands export scale and reinforces firms’ export behaviours. Specifically, quality-based competence firms upgrade the quality of their core products, whereas cost-based competence firms reduce the prices of their core products. These findings have significant implications for emerging countries implementing upgraded international trade and prompting domestic market integration.

Solute export patterns across the contiguous USA

AbstractUnderstanding controls on solute export to streams is challenging because heterogeneous catchments can respond uniquely to drivers of environmental change. To understand general solute export patterns, we used a large‐scale inductive approach to evaluate concentration–discharge (C–Q) metrics across catchments spanning a broad range of catchment attributes and hydroclimatic drivers. We leveraged paired C–Q data for 11 solutes from CAMELS‐Chem, a database built upon an existing dataset of catchment and hydroclimatic attributes from relatively undisturbed catchments across the contiguous USA. Because C–Q relationships with Q thresholds reflect a shift in solute export dynamics and are poorly characterized across solutes and diverse catchments, we analysed C–Q relationships using Bayesian segmented regression to quantify Q thresholds in the C–Q relationship. Threshold responses were rare, representing only 12% of C–Q relationships, 56% of which occurred for solutes predominantly sourced from bedrock. Further, solutes were dominated by one or two C–Q patterns that reflected vertical solute–source distributions. Specifically, solutes predominantly sourced from bedrock had diluting C–Q responses in 43%–70% of catchments, and solutes predominantly sourced from soils had more enrichment responses in 35%–51% of catchments. We also linked C–Q relationships to catchment and hydroclimatic attributes to understand controls on export patterns. The relationships were generally weak despite the diversity of solutes and attribute types considered. However, catchment and hydroclimatic attributes in the central USA typically drove the most divergent export behaviour for solutes. Further, we illustrate how our inductive approach generated new hypotheses that can be tested at discrete, representative catchments using deductive approaches to better understand the processes underlying solute export patterns. Finally, given these long‐term C–Q relationships are from minimally disturbed catchments, our findings can be used as benchmarks for change in more disturbed catchments.

Is Service Orientation Benefitting Manufacturing Exports from Low-Middle Income Countries? Firm-level Empirical Evidence from WBES Data

Servicification of manufacturing, generally understood as the increasing use of service inputs in the production process of goods, is often associated with high-income countries. Recent empirical research on servicification and its impact on manufacturing exports across low-middle income countries is, however, relatively scarce. The current article empirically tests the servicification for low-middle income countries using the World Bank Enterprise Survey (WBES) database over 2006–2021. A fixed effect model with country-sector-year fixed effects is used to study the impact of servicification on existing exporters (intensive margin), and a Logit model is estimated to determine the corresponding impact on the decision to export (extensive margin). While the positive influence of servicification on manufacturing exports is confirmed, different service categories (e.g., transport & communication, information & technology, research & development, legal, finance and related services) are found to play an essential role in determining the decision to enter the export market, while leaving a weaker impact on existing exporters. The findings suggest that increasing the use of different categories of service inputs may differently influence firm-level export behaviour. Liberalization of services, in the era of Industry 4.0, is expected to further enhance this interlinkage. These inevitable dynamics require preparations by firm-level decision-makers to benefit from the emerging opportunities.

Potato Production in India: a Critical Appraisal on Sustainability, Forecasting, Price and Export Behaviour

Potato Production in India: a Critical Appraisal on Sustainability, Forecasting, Price and Export Behaviour

Vanilla production in the world and Mexico: Market value and technology

Vanilla and vanillin are essential commodities for the food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and tobacco industries. However, the global production of natural vanillin is insufficient to meet its demand and has been replaced by synthetic or biotechnological substitutes. Consequently, the opportunity to promote this sector is being missed, and the introduction of natural products with higher added value into the market is not encouraged. Therefore, this study sought, first, to conduct a study about the production and value of vanilla cultivation in Mexico and the world, and second, to examine the technology sectors that have developed around the production and processing of vanilla and vanillin. The methodological development includes: a) an export behavior study and a three-year forecast; b) a factor analysis to build a crop production index; c) the identification of conglomerates to define groups according to their behavior; and d) patent and network analyses to show the main technological sectors, countries, and applicants of technologies relevant to our object of study. Results show that vanilla production is dominated by countries such as Madagascar and Indonesia; although Mexico presents positive results in terms of yield, its participation is limited, in spite of having the appellation of origin for this crop. Data on Mexico indicate that technological development is being carried out by foreign companies and is oriented toward the industrial use of vanillin, disregarding agricultural development. The literature and results point to a lack of a public policy in México to promote this sector and insufficient scientific and technological development to achieve sustainable production. Training and market plans for the benefit of small producers should also be facilitated to boost their participation in the international arena.

Factor analysis of the external environment of foreign enterprises in the process of foreign economic activity

The article presents factor analysis factor analysis of the external environment of foreign enterprises in the process of foreign economic activity. The results show that an increase in operational efficiency increases the level of export indicators. In other words, if someone wants to make businesses competitive internationally, they need to expand their management capabilities. At the same time, the company must combine its abilities with market knowledge, creating a network at home and abroad if the company wants to achieve better results in foreign markets. In the course of the study, both general scientific and special methods were used, including the method of factor analysis and the graphical method. The method of mathematical analysis was used to systematize the factors that influence exports. Foreign economic activity explains to a limited extent the export behavior of companies in developing countries, where the business environment in which companies operate is unstable. Therefore, it is necessary to focus on external factors such as market dynamics and the institutional environment. This is because the efficiency of a firm is determined by the characteristics of its external environment, which is represented by the characteristics of its industry and the export market environment. The purpose of the article is to conduct a factor analysis of the external environment of foreign enterprises in the process of foreign economic activity It was found out that foreign economic activity is limited. This explains the export behavior of companies in developing countries, where the business conditions in which enterprises operate are unstable. Therefore, it is necessary to focus on external factors, such as market dynamics and the institutional environment. Because the effectiveness of a firm is determined by the characteristics of its external environment, which is represented by the characteristics of its industry and the environment of the export market.

Trade and credit: Revisiting the evidence

AbstractThis paper explores the effects of bank lending shocks on the export behavior of Spanish firms. For that purpose, we combine data on exports at the firm‐product‐destination level with a matched bank‐firm dataset incorporating information on the universe of corporate loans from 2002 to 2013. Armed with this dataset, we identify bank‐year specific credit supply shocks and estimate their impact on firms' exports at the product‐destination level. According to our estimates, credit supply shocks have sizable effects on both the intensive margin (amount exported) and the extensive margin of trade (decision to export).

Institutional trust and entrepreneurs' export behavior: An international analysis

Institutional trust and entrepreneurs' export behavior: An international analysis

The effects of heterogeneous sanctions on exporting firms: Evidence from Denmark

AbstractSanctions encompass a wide set of policy instruments restricting cross‐border economic activities. In this paper, we study how different types of sanctions affect the export behavior of firms to the targeted countries. We combine Danish register data, including information on firm‐destination‐specific exports, with information on sanctions imposed by Denmark from the Global Sanctions Database. Our data allow us to study firms' export behavior in 62 sanctioned countries, amounting to a total of 453 country‐years with sanctions over the period 2000–2015. Methodologically, we apply a two‐stage estimation strategy to properly account for multilateral resistance terms. We find that, on average, sanctions lead to a significant reduction in firms' destination‐specific exports and a significant increase in firms' probability to exit the destination. Next, we study heterogeneity in the effects of sanctions across (i) sanction types and sanction packages, (ii) the objectives of sanctions, and (iii) countries subject to sanctions. Results confirm that the effects of sanctions on firms' export behavior vary considerably across these three dimensions.

How can artificial intelligence boost firms' exports? evidence from China.

This paper explores the impact of artificial intelligence and industrial robots on firms' export behaviour and divides the impact mechanism into the productivity effect and labour substitution effect. It examines the effect of industrial robots on firms' export value by using Chinese Customs data, Chinese Industrial Firm data and robot data from the International Robot Federation (IRF). The main findings are as follows: Firstly, the impact of artificial intelligence and industrial robots on Chinese firms' export value is generally negative, which means the negative labour substitution effect dominates the positive productivity effect. Secondly, the impact of artificial intelligence varies significantly by industry, and the export value of firms from high-tech industries benefits from the use of industrial robots. Thirdly, the impact of artificial intelligence on firms' export value also varies by time; before 2003, the use of industrial robots showed mainly an inhibiting effect on firms' exports, which turned into a driving effect thereafter, and after 2006, industrial robots began to significantly promote firms' export. Finally, the higher the quality of export products, the more likely the use of industrial robots will be to promote firms' export value, and the higher the capital-labour ratio is, the more likely firms' export value will be to benefit from the use of artificial intelligence and industrial robots. On the basis of these findings, this study proposes promoting the productivity effect to dominate the labour substitution effect through technological progress and the improvement of export product quality.

Determinants of the Export Function in Morocco: Evidence from ARDL and Dynamic ARDL Models

Maintaining an acceptable level of trade deficit is one of the main challenges of the trade policy in developing countries like Morocco. Therefore, studying the most influential factors of the export function is of foremost importance. In this regard, our article studies the impact of a set of supply and demand determinants on export behavior in Morocco for the period Q1-1998–Q4-2018. The study uses an ARDL bound testing approach with structural breaks, extending to a future projection using the dynamic ARDL. The results of this study show that financial development, natural resources, and foreign investment output significantly influence Morocco’s export behavior. Consequently, forging a multidimensional policy that ensures the optimal allocation of financial resources, the modernization of the agricultural and phosphate sectors, and the transfer of know-how from foreign investors are some of the structural recommendations that will allow the promotion of exports in the future. JEL Classification C32, F14, F17