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Identifying Foreign Suppliers in U.S. Merchandise Import Transactions

Author

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  • Fariha Kamal
  • C.J. Krizan
  • Ryan Monarch

Abstract

The availability of international trade transactions data capturing individual relationships between buyers and suppliers permits the answering of numerous new questions governing the economic activity of traders. In this paper, we explore the reliability of two-sided firm trade transactions data sourced from the United States by comparing the number of foreign suppliers from U.S. merchandise import transaction data to origin-country data. We find that the statistic derived from the origin-country data, on average, tends to be 20 percent lower than using the raw U.S. data. Guided by this finding, we propose and implement a set of methods that are capable of aligning the counts more closely from these two different data sources. Overall, our analysis presents broad support for the use of U.S. merchandise import transactions data to study buyer-supplier relationships in international trade.

Suggested Citation

  • Fariha Kamal & C.J. Krizan & Ryan Monarch, 2015. "Identifying Foreign Suppliers in U.S. Merchandise Import Transactions," Working Papers 15-11, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    • Handle: RePEc:cen:wpaper:15-11
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    Cited by:

    1. Bonfiglioli, Alessandra & Crinò, Rosario & Gancia, Gino, 2021. "Concentration in international markets: Evidence from US imports," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 19-39.
    2. Kamal, Fariha & Sundaram, Asha, 2019. "Do institutions determine economic Geography? Evidence from the concentration of foreign suppliers," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 89-101.
    3. Sebastian Heise, 2016. "Firm-to-Firm Relationships and Price Rigidity - Theory and Evidence," CESifo Working Paper Series 6226, CESifo.
    4. Mary Amiti & Sebastian Heise, 2021. "U.S. Market Concentration and Import Competition," Staff Reports 968, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    5. Kirill Borusyak & Xavier Jaravel, 2018. "The Distributional Effects of Trade: Theory and Evidence from the United States," 2018 Meeting Papers 284, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    6. Tim Schmidt-Eisenlohr & Ryan Monarch, 2015. "Learning and the Value of Relationships in International Trade," 2015 Meeting Papers 668, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    7. Stephen J. Redding & David E. Weinstein, 2017. "Aggregating from Micro to Macro Patterns of Trade," NBER Working Papers 24051, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Alessandra Bonfiglioli & Rosario Crinò & Gino Gancia, 2018. "Firms and Economic Performance: A View from Trade," Working Papers 1047, Barcelona School of Economics.
    9. Ryan Monarch, 2014. ""It's Not You, It's Me": Breakup In U.S.-China Trade Relationships," Working Papers 14-08, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    10. James Tybout & David Jinkins & Daniel Yi Xu & Jonathan Eaton, 2016. "Two-sided Search in International Markets," 2016 Meeting Papers 973, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    11. Felipe Benguria, 2022. "Do US exporters take advantage of free trade agreements? Evidence from the US‐Colombia free trade agreement," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 1148-1179, September.
    12. Basker, Emek & Kamal, Fariha, 2021. "Recall and response: Relationship adjustments to adverse information shocks," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    13. Sebastian Heise, 2019. "Firm-to-Firm Relationships and the Pass-Through of Shocks: Theory and Evidence," Staff Reports 896, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    14. Pol Antràs & Davin Chor, 2021. "Global Value Chains," NBER Working Papers 28549, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. C.J. Krizan & James Tybout & Zi Wang & Yingyan Zhao, 2020. "Are Customs Records Consistent Across Countries? Evidence from the U.S. and Colombia," Working Papers 20-11, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    16. Hottman, Colin J. & Monarch, Ryan, 2020. "A matter of taste: Estimating import price inflation across U.S. income groups," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    17. Aaron Flaaen, 2017. "The Role of Transfer Prices in Profit-Shifting by U.S. Multinational Firms : Evidence from the 2004 Homeland Investment Act," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2017-055, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    18. Kamal, Fariha & Sundaram, Asha, 2016. "Buyer–seller relationships in international trade: Do your neighbors matter?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 128-140.
    19. Peter Schott & Justin Pierce & Georg Schaur & Sebastian Heise, 2017. "Trade Policy Uncertainty and the Structure of Supply Chains," 2017 Meeting Papers 788, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    20. Monarch, Ryan & Schmidt-Eisenlohr, Tim, 2023. "Longevity and the value of trade relationships," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    21. Benguria, Felipe, 2021. "The matching and sorting of exporting and importing firms: Theory and evidence," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).

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    JEL classification:

    • F1 - International Economics - - Trade
    • L14 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Transactional Relationships; Contracts and Reputation

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