On The Productivity Paradox Of Heterogeneous Firms In Export

The theories of comparative advantage and heterogeneous firms are both important in the system of international trade theory. The former is regarded as the foundation of all international trade theories. And the later marks the focus of international trade theories changes from macro to micro. Although they have their characteristics respectively, they main concern two core questions:the cause of trade and the outcome of trade. The comparative advantage theorem researches these two questions from a macro point of view, while the heterogeneous firm theorem researches them from firms’ productivity. As to the trade of China, the comparative advantage strategy is successful on the macro. China becomes a trading power, and export becomes a driver of economy growth of China. But on the micro, many domestic researches find that the productivity of exporting firms is lower than that of non-exporting firms. This phenomenon is called productivity paradox of exporting. Although the domestic literature have investigate the paradox from many aspects, some important fields are ignored, such as the essence and the generation mechanism of the paradox, it is formed before or after exporting, the relationship of comparative advantage on the macro and the productivity paradox on the micro, the paradox existing in Chinese firms is certainly or accidental et al. Beginning with the essence and the generation mechanism of the paradox, this dissertation researches the paradox systematically. It takes the comparative advantage into the framework of heterogeneous firms, and explains the source of the paradox from comparative advantage.The significance and innovation of this dissertation are as following:(1) This dissertation puts forward that the essence of the productivity paradox of exporting is the decisive effect of productivity on firms’ exporting decision is weakened. It inquires two sources of the productivity paradox (self-selection paradox and learning by exporting paradox) and their generation mechanism. (2)From a dynamic angle, this dissertation investigates the evolution trend of the productivity paradox on time and industries and also examines the exporters’productivity states before and after exporting. (3) This dissertation explains the paradox from comparative advantage. It argues that the decisive effect of productivity in comparative advantage department is weaker than it in comparative disadvantage department due to the differences on exporting competitive advantages and exporting opportunity in the two departments. This dissertation further inquires the source of the productivity paradox in comparative advantage department, and finds that firms in it own a lower productivity before exporting and a higher growth rate after exporting. (4) This dissertation argues that ths productivity paradox of exporting in Chinese firms might be inevitably depending on certain circumstances and development stages. We needn’t to eliminate it, but we must realize the importance to improve firms’ productivity for the sustainable development of China’s export.With theoretical deductive method, empirical research, the dissertation proposes the following main conclusions:1. The essence of the productivity paradox of exporting is the decisive effect of productivity on firms’ exporting decision is weakened. From the angle of ex ante and ex post, it includes two aspects:self-selection paradox and learning by exporting paradox. The generation of self-selection paradox is due to the adverse selecting effect of productivity on exporting market and the crowding-out effect from higher productivity firms to lower productivity ones on domestic market. The generation of learning by exporting paradox is due to some factors from firms and circumstances.2. The empirical analysis on Chinese manufacturing listed companies from 2000-2013 shows that the productivity of exporters is significantly lower than non-exporters which denotes the existing of productivity paradox. The paradox has a positive relationship with the degree of opening, that is, the later aggravates the former. The dynamic variation of the paradox among industries is accordance with the change trend of Chinese exporting comparative advantage. The probability of paradox in comparative advantage department is higher than comparative disadvantage department. The paradox of Chinese manufacturing listed companies lies in the self-selection paradox. However the learning by exporting effect is significant.3. Based on the framework of Bernard et al. (2007), the dissertation argues that the paradox more probably arises in firms of comparative advantage department than comparative disadvantage department. First, firms in comparative advantage department have a characteristic of a choice between low cost and high productivity. They may successfully be a exporter relying on a lower price coming from high productivity or low cost. Second, the fixed cost of export in comparative advantage department is lower than comparative disadvantage department which can reduce the threshold of productivity to enter the foreign market. Furthermore, a large number of borne export-oriented firms in comparative advantage department aggravate the paradox.4. The empirical test based on Chinese manufacturing listed companies finds that the productivity paradox arises in firms, especially privately operated firms from comparative disadvantage department in short run. In long run, the comparative advantage has a negative effect on firms’ productivity. It expands the productivity gap between exporters and non-exporters. While the comparative disadvantage has a positive effect on firms’ productivity, it narrows the productivity gap between exporters and non-exporters. The source of the paradox in comparative advantage department is the self-selection paradox. The learning by exporting effect is relatively brief for firms in comparative advantage department.The dissertation considers that the productivity paradox of exporting in Chinese firms has some necessity and certainty. But raising firms’ productivity is the micro foundation of the sustainable development of China’s export in the long run. At the present stage, the encouraging innovation measures for exporting firms should be different between the comparative advantage department and the comparative disadvantage department, and also among various property of system of ownership. The government should reform the institutional factors that distort the self-selection effect of productivity, and assist the exporters to gain more from exporting activity.