Research On The Impact Of The Relaxation Of Foreign Investment Access On The Quality Of Export Products

Product quality upgrading is the key to China’s transformation from a trading power to a trading powerhouse,and it is also an inevitable choice to promote highquality trade development.As the basic basis for the approval of foreign investment projects,the Catalogue for the Guidance of Foreign Investment Industries can effectively guide the flow of foreign capital and affect the micro behavior of enterprises.Many scholars have studied how the relaxation of foreign capital access affects the total factor productivity,management efficiency,innovation level and import and export behavior of enterprises,but few literatures focus on how the relaxation of foreign capital access affects the quality of enterprises’ export products.Therefore,based on the revision of the Catalogue for the Guidance of Foreign Investment Industries in 2007,this paper uses the micro data at the enterprise level from 2003 to 2013 to study whether the relaxation of foreign investment access can promote the upgrading of export product quality.The results show that the relaxation of foreign investment access can significantly promote the improvement of the quality of enterprises’ export products,and the conclusion is still valid after a variety of robustness testing.This paper classifies the sample enterprises by enterprise type,trade mode,whether to import intermediate products and other standards,and tests the heterogeneity of foreign capital access relaxation to improve product quality.In addition,this paper also analyzes the effectiveness of expected channels such as enterprise productivity,enterprise innovation and scale effect.The main conclusions of this paper are as follows: First,the relaxation of foreign capital access policy can significantly improve the quality of enterprises’ export products.After various robustness tests and the use of tool variables to solve endogenous problems,the conclusion that the relaxation of foreign capital access can significantly improve the quality of export products is still valid.Second,the relaxation of foreign capital access policy has no significant impact on the quality of export products of small enterprises and state-owned enterprises,but it can improve the quality of products of large enterprises and foreign-funded enterprises.Compared with enterprises with lower product quality and export enterprises,the adjustment of the Catalogue for the Guidance of Foreign Investment Industries has more obvious effects on enterprises with high product quality and enterprises with import and export behaviors,which can significantly promote these enterprises to upgrade their product quality.In addition,the relaxation of foreign capital access has a stronger effect on improving the product quality of processing trade enterprises and capital intensive enterprises.Third,the relaxation of foreign capital access policy can improve the quality of export products by improving the total factor productivity of enterprises,easing the level of enterprise financing constraints,improving management efficiency and reducing production costs,expanding the scale of enterprise production,and importing more types and higher quality intermediates.The improvement of innovation level is also an effective channel for the relaxation of foreign capital access to affect the quality of enterprise products.Based on the conclusions,this paper puts forward the following policy recommendations: First,continue to promote the process of foreign capital liberalization,implement differentiated incentive policies according to different characteristics of industries,regions,ownership types,etc.,further improve and revise the Catalogue for the Guidance of Foreign Investment Industries,and accelerate the construction of the negative list management system.Second,reduce trade barriers,encourage enterprises to import high-quality and high-tech intermediate products,provide strong support for the transformation of trade structure and industrial upgrading.Third,improve the institutional environment,promote domestic financial system reform,ease financing constraints,improve patent protection,reduce patent transaction costs,and create a good innovation atmosphere.Fourth,strengthen enterprise exchanges,improve the absorptive capacity of enterprises,encourage local enterprises to learn the advanced technology and mature management experience of foreign enterprises,and create a good cooperation environment.