Pure Exporters Research Articles

Applying Negative Soft Power? Examining Hungary’s Digital Criticism of the European Union

This study examines how Hungary’s criticism of the European Union (EU) is reflected in its digital diplomacy efforts. It proposes that systematic criticism of the bloc can be seen as a deliberate use of negative soft power, a tactic that involves portraying others in an unfavourable context. To address the research objective, the study examines the Twitter (now known as X) diplomacy of 40 Hungarian government officials in 2021–2022 and identifies EU-related content and criticism through a semi-automatic content analysis. The results show that while a few central government users systematically and explicitly criticise the EU, other actors balance condemnation with neutral and positive posts. The findings, therefore, indicate that Hungary’s systemic weakness limits the pure export of national discourses and forces soft power strategies to mix critical commentary with neutral and positive representation.

African firms in global value chains: What can we learn from firm‐level data in Cameroon and Côte d'Ivoire?

AbstractThe paper offers a detailed review of African firms' participation to international value chains and provides new quantitative insights on two countries, Cameroon and Ivory Coast, based on a unique dataset, which was obtained by merging firm census and detailed customs transactions over time. “GVC firms” are defined as firms that both export and import, with positive production and labour. The paper characterises GVC firms in the two countries. GVC firms represent about 15% of manufacturing firms; they are more frequent than pure exporters, a sign of the challenges faced by firms in those countries if they want to sell abroad. In line with the literature on firm heterogeneity and trade, firms engaged in GVCs are larger, more productive and live longer than one‐way‐traders or domestic firms. African markets are the main destination of manufacturing GVCs in Ivory Coast, while Cameroon GVC firms rely on OECD (including for agricultural exports). There is limited cross‐penetration between African‐oriented and OECD‐oriented GVC firms over time. The probability of moving into a GVC is higher for exporters than for importers, showing that exporting is a stepping stone for African firms to join a GVC.

Who are pure exporters?

AbstractThe existing literature establishes the pattern that exporters in developed countries sell most of their output in their own domestic markets; however, recent evidence suggests that the export intensity distributions of 47 countries exhibit peaks at each end. In this study, we study the characteristics of pure exporters, namely exporters at the right‐hand peak of the distribution. We use Thailand's firm‐level panel data covering the period from 2007 through 2017 to estimate factors that explain the likelihood that a firm self‐selects to be a pure exporter. We do not find evidence that firm‐level productivity can explain the decision to become a pure exporter. Rather, the main factors that determine the decision are the capital–labour ratio, the amount of labour, foreign ownership, investment promotion and firm age.

Machine learning approaches for prediction of properties of natural fiber composites : Apriori algorithm

ABSTRACT The selection of materials with the required properties was developing rapidly. There is no single rule to choose suitable material for a particular product. The complexes interrelation among the properties of composites makes more difficult to suggest suitable material for material scientist. The forecasting of relationship among material properties with throughput screening methods can help for the discovery of novel materials. The conventional way of selection of material need more investigations and time consuming. Recently, machine learning approaches are widely used in mechanical domain. Hence in this work, machine learning-based method was proposed to discover the relationship between the properties of natural fibres composites. To apply machine learning approach, there are 26 different natural fibres composites of Coir, Jute, Banana etc. were taken in to consideration. These materials are reinforced with pure export with different manufacturing methods such as Hand layup, Spray layup, Hot press moulding, and Compression moulding to produce the samples as per ASTM standards. The properties like density, tensile strength, hardness etc. were measured and interrelation among them was recognised using proposed method.

Managerial Attention and Export Performance: A Comparison between mMNEs and Pure SME Exporters

Drawing on the attention-based view and literature on small- and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs) internationalization, we explore the value of international attention (i.e., managerial time and effort devoted to understanding the international marketplace) for SME export performance. We further argue that SMEs are heterogeneous in terms of situated contexts and organizational structures, and for that matter, differ in performance gains achieved through their managers’ international attention. A distinction is therefore made between pure exporters and so-called “micromultinationals (mMNEs)” that engage in more committed international activities besides exporting. Based on a survey of Dutch SMEs, our findings indicate a positive association between managers’ international attention and firms’ export performance. This relationship is stronger for mMNEs than for pure SME exporters, pointing to the implication that managers’ international attention should be commensurate with firm specifics in order to add values.

The impact of trade with pure exporters

AbstractWe extend the Melitz model to include pure exporters and study how they influence economic performance. We find that the presence of pure exporters lowers the productivity premium of exporters. Moreover, if there is a large portion of pure exporters, then international trade lowers the average productivity, but not welfare. Moreover, we explore how trade liberalization in form of lower entry cost into foreign markets and lower variable export cost influences the distribution of firms between pure exporters, ordinary exporters and non‐exporters.

Business response to COVID-19 impact: Effectiveness analysis in South Africa

Background: Following the outbreak of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), many businesses have put out measures to counter the impact of the outbreak and its related reactions from economic actors (individuals, authorities and other businesses) on their business operations. However, nearly no empirical studies or reports have been carried out to investigate the effectiveness of those measures.Aim: This study aimed at examining the effectiveness of business response measures to COVID-19 impact on business outcome.Setting: This study focused on businesses that are value-added tax (VAT) registered.Methods: A cross-sectional survey design was used. The authors applied logistic regression technique to analyse the effectiveness of business response measures on business outcome.Results: The authors found evidence that business responses such as virtual connection, innovative e-commerce and increasing working hours are more effective business responses, whilst decreasing work hours, laying off workers temporarily and ordinary e-commerce are less effective measures against the impact of the outbreak. Furthermore, business characteristics such as industry type (e.g. ‘agriculture, hunting, forestry and fishing’ and ‘electricity, gas and water supply’) are more resilient to COVID-19 shock, whilst pure export market and small businesses, secondary and tertiary, are significantly less resilient.Conclusions: Firstly, the study shows that some business responses are more effective in remediating the adverse impact of COVID-19 and therefore recommends policy intervention and industrial actions to promote them. Secondly, it is also recommended that financial bailout and/or Internet infrastructure and domestic support for small and export businesses could make them more resilient to the adverse impact of the outbreak.

Understanding the Bimodality of the Export Intensity Distribution in Thailand

The literature has established a pattern that exporters in developed countries sell most of their output in their domestic markets. However, recent evidence finds that firm-level export intensity, defined as the ratio of exports to revenue, in at least 47 countries is bimodally distributed. In this paper, we investigate the determinants of the bimodality of Thailand’s export intensity distribution by using Thailand's manufacturing firm-level census data covering the period between 2007-2017. We do not find evidence that firm productivity can explain the variation in export intensity. We document that firms with export intensity at least 90 percent, so-called “pure exporters,” can be explained by (i) the firm’s characteristics, (ii) the demand-side factor, and (iii) the government’s policy. Pure exporters are relatively young, have foreign ownership, produce narrow product variety, and export to high-income countries. The government’s policy, such as investment promotion, can raise firms’ export intensity and encourage firms to become pure exporters, thereby emphasizing another important channel through which the government can increase exports.

A Push over Trade Barriers: Firms’ Access to External Finance and Their Sales Hierarchy

This article analyzes the effects of external finance on firms’ decision to choose a firm type with different sales combinations, in the presence of both domestic and international trade costs. It utilizes a World Bank survey of firms operating in China in the early 2000s with a multinomial logit method to inform the study. Based on firms’ sales destinations, we categorize firms in four exclusive types as Provincial Firms, Domestic Firms, Pure Exporters, and All Sellers to highlight domestic trade barriers across provincial borders and international trade barriers. We find that access to financial loans significantly raises firms’ odds to overcome domestic and international trade barriers by choosing a firm type with sales beyond their home provincial borders and/or overseas. The effects vary across firm ownership types of being SOEs, foreign affiliates and private firms, highlighting their inherent differences. The results indicate loans’ perceived importance, reflecting the inefficient loan allocations in China. Further, the results here help uncover the pervasiveness of China’s domestic trade barriers: access to external finance significantly increases the odds for firms to sell outside their home provinces even if they did not feel local protection and more for those if they did.

THE EFFECTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATION ON EXPORTERS’ EXITING BEHAVIOR: THE EVIDENCE FROM CHINA

This study investigates the impact of stricter environmental regulation on export exit behavior of Chinese manufacturing firms from 1998 to 2009. After controlling heterogeneous firm, we find that (i) on average, the stricter regulation has not significantly caused more export exit; (ii) under stricter policy, foreign invested pure (or pollution intensive) exporters are not more likely to exit export than domestic pure (or pollution intensive) exporters; (iii) only weak evidence supports the pollution haven hypothesis for domestic pure exporters. All our robustness checks such as difference in difference analysis, different regulation measurement, and matched firm analysis show similar results.

Inter-regional OFDI motives and location patterns – the case of Polish OFDI outside Europe

Our research aims to identify the nature of the outward foreign direct investment done by Polish firms in remote markets. By exploring quantitatively and qualitatively the flows and stocks of Polish FDIs conducted outside Europe and examining the data on projects conducted by Polish firms outside Europe the authors try to diagnose the internationalisation motives and location patterns of Polish firms in distant regions. The results showed that, although marginal, the presence of Polish investors in foreign markets comes in diversified forms, ranging from pure export servicing and sales to bold greenfield projects created from scratch.

Trade liberalization and markups: Micro evidence from China

This paper presents evidence from highly disaggregated Chinese firm-product data that, given productivity, input tariff reductions induce an incumbent importer/exporter to increase product markups. We further investigate empirically the mechanisms underlying this trade liberalization effect, and find that input tariff reductions decrease marginal costs, and their effects on markup adjustments are more profound among firms with higher import dependence. Moreover, we exploit unique features of Chinese data by comparing results for two trade regimes: ordinary trade (wherein firms pay import tariffs to import) and processing trade (wherein firms are not subject to import tariffs). While the aforementioned trade liberalization effects and mechanisms only apply to ordinary trade, processing trade samples are used in a placebo test. The paper also shows that more productive firms charge higher markups for products. All these findings are robust to alternative markup measures including one estimate using physical-quantity output data, different production function specifications, a subsample consisting only of pure exporters, and estimations based on our theoretical derivations.

Managerial attention and export performance: A comparison between mMNEs and pure SME exporters

This paper explores the role of managerial attention in influencing the export performance of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Building on the attention-based view and theories of SME in...

Food safety standards and international supply chain organization: A case study of the Moroccan fruit and vegetable exports

This paper addresses the issue of international food supply chain organization faced to food safety standards. The case of Moroccan fruit and vegetable supply chain is taken as an example. The dynamics of Moroccan food safety legislation and regulatory systems and the measures taken to facilitate export ex-ante compliance capacity with target market requirements are analysed. The results of a direct survey on producers/exporters in the Souss Massa Region are presented. Operators are classified according to the typology of vertical linkages in producers/exporters, pure exporters, and cooperatives. The relations among the typology of operators, targets markets, prevailing modes for food safety governance, and compliance costs and benefits with food safety standards are discussed.

Gone for Good? Subsidies with Export Share Requirements in China: 2002–13

This paper presents a simple model of subsidies with export share requirements (ESR) in a heterogeneous firm environment. A two-country general equilibrium version of the model with a single 100% ESR is calibrated using firm-level data from the 2002 wave of the Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey collected by the World Bank for China. The calibrated model is used to gauge the change in subsidies with ESR that is consistent with the fall in the share of ‘pure exporters’, firms exporting all their output, observed in China, from 25.7% in 2002 to 11.1% in 2013. Our results indicate that a 6.9% reduction in the ad-valorem subsidy rate available to firms that export all their output is consistent with the observed fall in their share of exporting firms. Expenditure in subsidies (as a share of value-added) falls by 66% and welfare in China increases by 1.76% while real income in the rest of the world falls by 0.59%.

Modern Integration Units: Comparative Analysis Of The Growth Factors

In the article, the results of the research, which purpose is to ground and assess the factors of economic growth of regional integration communities and national economies of member countries that develop them, are presented. The foreign trade, mutual trade turnover, and domestic demand are allocated as such factors. The authors has applied the novelty in their methodology which in contrast to the traditional assessment method of growth factors of integration communities and their participants, is based on comparison of two components — external and domestic demand, based on dividing the external demand on two components: the first one is pure export (the difference between export and import is a component of cumulative demand) of goods in integration community, i.e. the pure export of mutual trade; the second one is a pure export of foreign trade of goods outside of the integration association. Scope of the research is seven most known regional integrated units arose at different times and being at different stages of development — the European Union, North American Free Trade Area, Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Southern American Common Market, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, and also member countries of the Eurasian integration — the Customs Union and Common Free Market Zone developed into the Eurasian Economic Union in January 1, 2015. In conclusion, it is noted that the integration develops successfully only in the conditions of the rise in national economies of the participating countries. Crisis economies have to deal more with internal problems than to resolve integration issues.

Processing Trade, Firm Heterogeneity and Export Behavior of Chinese Firms

In this paper, I have incorporated pure exporters into an asymmetric two-country general equilibrium model by Melitz (2003) to explain trade performance and export patterns in China. This model captures the coexistence of pure exporters, non-exporters and regular exporters in a single unified framework. The paper shows how the presence of domestic trade cost alongside of the sheer magnitude of processing trade drastically affects how the impact of trade is distributed across different types of firms. The least productive firms behave only as pure exporters; the most efficient ones reap benefits from trade in the form of gains in revenue and profit; and less efficient firms focus on the domestic market. On the other hand, the paper shows the existence of domestic and export costs does not affect the welfare-enhancing properties of trade: falling trade costs unequivocally deliver welfare gains in both countries.

Pure Exporter: Theory and Evidence from China

AbstractThis article provides the first evidence about pure exporters (i.e. firms exporting all of their output to the foreign market) – a phenomenon overlooked and cannot be explained in the existing literature. It then offers a theoretical analysis of the existence and behaviour of pure exporters. In particular, pure exporters arise when the export market is sufficiently large – a situation more likely to hold in developing countries as opposed to large developed countries, and their productivity levels are above those of nonexporters, but below those of firms having both domestic sales and export. These theoretical predictions are borne out in a data of Chinese manufacturing firms for the period of 1998–2005.

Gone for Good? Subsidies with Export Share Requirements in China: 2002-2013

This paper presents a simple model of subsidies with export share requirements (ESR) in a heterogeneous firm environment. A two-country general equilibrium version of the model with a single 100% ESR is calibrated using firm-level data from the 2002 wave of the Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey collected by the World Bank for China. The calibrated model is used to gauge the change in subsidies with ESR that is consistent with the fall in the share of pure exporters, firms exporting all their output, observed in China, from 25.7% in 2002 to 11.1% in 2013. Our results indicate that a 6.9% reduction in the ad-valorem subsidy rate available to firms that export all their output is consistent with the observed fall in their share of exporting firms. Expenditure in subsidies (as a share of value-added) falls by 66% and welfare in China increases by 1.76% while real income in the rest of the world falls by 0.59%.

Pure Exporter: Theory and Evidence

This paper provides the first evidence about pure exporters (i.e., firms exporting all of their output to the foreign market) -- a phenomenon overlooked and cannot be explained in the existing literature. It then offers a generalized model of Melitz (2003) for examining the existence and behavior of pure exporters. In particular, pure exporters arise when the export market is sufficiently large -- a situation more likely to hold in developing countries as opposed to large developed countries; and their productivity levels are above those of non-exporters, but below those of firms having both domestic sales and export. These theoretical predictions are borne out in a data of Chinese manufacturing firms for the period of 1998-2005.