IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecanpo/v79y2023icp462-478.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Enhancing export product quality through innovative cities: A firm-level quasi-natural experiment in China

Author

Listed:
  • Yang, Shubo
  • Jahanger, Atif
  • Hossain, Mohammad Razib
  • Wang, Yanming
  • Balsalobre-Lorente, Daniel

Abstract

China plays a significant role in the global product supply chain through its exports. To remain competitive, Chinese firms need to manufacture products cost-effectively. Revamping innovative cities can contribute to this goal, but empirical evidence in this area is limited. Therefore, this paper scrutinizes the innovative city pilot policy’s consequences on firms’ export performance and product quality. We employ the time-varying Difference in Difference (DID) model and harness a comprehensive firm-by-product level database to estimate the co-movement between the pilot intervention and the performance of the export product. Based on the findings, we unveil that a smart intervened city can significantly boost firms’ export product quality, which still holds after multiple robustness checks. Furthermore, innovative cities heighten the quality of the manufactured products when we consider firm-level (i.e., private, foreign, and ordinary trade enterprises), industry-level (i.e., low-polluting, capital-intensive, and technology-intensive industries), and regional (i.e., Middle, and Western regions) heterogeneities. In addition, the intervened smart city strategy impacts the efficacy of export product quality through policy and innovation-driven effects. Over and above, policymakers and experts should support state-of-the-art ideas while considering local conditions, providing guidance for decision-making in China’s innovative development strategy.

Suggested Citation

  • Yang, Shubo & Jahanger, Atif & Hossain, Mohammad Razib & Wang, Yanming & Balsalobre-Lorente, Daniel, 2023. "Enhancing export product quality through innovative cities: A firm-level quasi-natural experiment in China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 462-478.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecanpo:v:79:y:2023:i:c:p:462-478
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eap.2023.06.031
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0313592623001534
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.eap.2023.06.031?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Guariglia, Alessandra & Liu, Xiaoxuan & Song, Lina, 2011. "Internal finance and growth: Microeconometric evidence on Chinese firms," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(1), pages 79-94, September.
    2. Quatraro, Francesco & Scandura, Alessandra, 2019. "Academic Inventors and the Antecedents of Green Technologies. A Regional Analysis of Italian Patent Data," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 247-263.
    3. Broda, Christian & Greenfield, Joshua & Weinstein, David E., 2017. "From groundnuts to globalization: A structural estimate of trade and growth," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(4), pages 759-783.
    4. Cai, Xiqian & Lu, Yi & Wu, Mingqin & Yu, Linhui, 2016. "Does environmental regulation drive away inbound foreign direct investment? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 73-85.
    5. Marianne Bertrand & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2003. "Enjoying the Quiet Life? Corporate Governance and Managerial Preferences," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 111(5), pages 1043-1075, October.
    6. Lee, Hsiao-Hui & Yang, S. Alex & Kim, Kijin, 2019. "The Role of Fintech in Mitigating Information Friction in Supply Chain Finance," ADB Economics Working Paper Series 599, Asian Development Bank.
    7. Raj Chetty & Adam Looney & Kory Kroft, 2009. "Salience and Taxation: Theory and Evidence," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(4), pages 1145-1177, September.
    8. Andreas Fuster & Matthew Plosser & Philipp Schnabl & James Vickery, 2019. "The Role of Technology in Mortgage Lending," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 32(5), pages 1854-1899.
    9. Richard Baldwin & James Harrigan, 2011. "Zeros, Quality, and Space: Trade Theory and Trade Evidence," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 3(2), pages 60-88, May.
    10. Heiwai Tang & Yifan Zhang, 2012. "Exchange Rates and the Margins of Trade: Evidence from Chinese Exporters," CESifo Economic Studies, CESifo Group, vol. 58(4), pages 671-702, December.
    11. Haichao Fan & Yao Amber Li & Stephen R. Yeaple, 2015. "Trade Liberalization, Quality, and Export Prices," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 97(5), pages 1033-1051, December.
    12. Zhang, Shaopeng & Wang, Xiaohong, 2022. "Does innovative city construction improve the industry–university–research knowledge flow in urban China?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    13. Jin, Peizhen & Mangla, Sachin Kumar & Song, Malin, 2021. "Moving towards a sustainable and innovative city: Internal urban traffic accessibility and high-level innovation based on platform monitoring data," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 235(C).
    14. Buchak, Greg & Matvos, Gregor & Piskorski, Tomasz & Seru, Amit, 2018. "Fintech, regulatory arbitrage, and the rise of shadow banks," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(3), pages 453-483.
    15. Chen, Zhongfei & Zhang, Xiao & Chen, Fanglin, 2021. "Do carbon emission trading schemes stimulate green innovation in enterprises? Evidence from China," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    16. Mark J Roberts & Daniel Yi Xu & Xiaoyan Fan & Shengxing Zhang, 2018. "The Role of Firm Factors in Demand, Cost, and Export Market Selection for Chinese Footwear Producers," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 85(4), pages 2429-2461.
    17. Maria Bas & Vanessa Strauss-Kahn, 2013. "Input-Trade Liberalization, Export Prices and Quality Upgrading," Working Papers hal-03460775, HAL.
    18. Wang, Jianda & Dong, Kangyin & Wang, Kun, 2023. "Towards green recovery: Platform economy and its impact on carbon emissions in China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 969-987.
    19. Amit K. Khandelwal & Peter K. Schott & Shang-Jin Wei, 2013. "Trade Liberalization and Embedded Institutional Reform: Evidence from Chinese Exporters," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(6), pages 2169-2195, October.
    20. Frank Crowley & Philip McCann, 2018. "Firm innovation and productivity in Europe: evidence from innovation-driven and transition-driven economies," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(11), pages 1203-1221, March.
    21. Hongbin Cai & Qiao Liu, 2009. "Competition and Corporate Tax Avoidance: Evidence from Chinese Industrial Firms," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 119(537), pages 764-795, April.
    22. He, Dongwei & Wang, Yunfei & You, Kai, 2023. "Market entry and the dynamics of export product quality: Evidence from Chinese manufacturing firms," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 692-706.
    23. Fan, Haichao & Gao, Xiang & Li, Yao Amber & Luong, Tuan Anh, 2018. "Trade liberalization and markups: Micro evidence from China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 103-130.
    24. Jingting Fan, 2019. "Internal Geography, Labor Mobility, and the Distributional Impacts of Trade," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 11(3), pages 252-288, July.
    25. Antoniades, Alexis, 2015. "Heterogeneous Firms, Quality, and Trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(2), pages 263-273.
    26. Charles J. Hadlock & Joshua R. Pierce, 2010. "New Evidence on Measuring Financial Constraints: Moving Beyond the KZ Index," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 23(5), pages 1909-1940.
    27. David H. Autor, 2003. "Outsourcing at Will: The Contribution of Unjust Dismissal Doctrine to the Growth of Employment Outsourcing," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 21(1), pages 1-42, January.
    28. Juan Carlos Hallak & Peter K. Schott, 2011. "Estimating Cross-Country Differences in Product Quality," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 126(1), pages 417-474.
    29. Xu, Le & Fan, Meiting & Yang, Lili & Shao, Shuai, 2021. "Heterogeneous green innovations and carbon emission performance: Evidence at China's city level," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    30. Yang, Shubo & Jahanger, Atif & Hossain, Mohammad Razib, 2023. "How effective has the low-carbon city pilot policy been as an environmental intervention in curbing pollution? Evidence from Chinese industrial enterprises," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    31. Atif Jahanger & Muhammad Usman & Daniel Balsalobre‐Lorente, 2022. "Linking institutional quality to environmental sustainability," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(6), pages 1749-1765, December.
    32. Dominic S.K. Lim & Eric A. Morse & Ronald K. Mitchell & Kristie K. Seawright, 2010. "Institutional Environment and Entrepreneurial Cognitions: A Comparative Business Systems Perspective," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 34(3), pages 491-516, May.
    33. Jiayun Xu & Qilin Mao, 2018. "On the relationship between intermediate input imports and export quality in China," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 26(3), pages 429-467, July.
    34. Shao, Yuchen & Xiao, Chengrui, 2019. "Corporate tax policy and heterogeneous firm innovation: Evidence from a developing country," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 470-486.
    35. Onur A. Koska, 2020. "Sourcing product quality for foreign market entry," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 156(3), pages 669-702, August.
    36. Qi, Yu & Yu, Jinliang & Yang, Shubo & Xie, Xiaoyi, 2022. "Local government consumption and firm performance: Evidence from the "TPCs" in China," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    37. Dongmin Kong & Mengxu Xiong, 2021. "Unintended consequences of tax incentives on export product quality: Evidence from a natural experiment in China," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(4), pages 802-837, September.
    38. Sun, Jin & Luo, Yitong & Zhou, Yuan, 2022. "The impact of regional trade agreements on the quality of export products in China’s manufacturing industry," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    39. Robert C. Feenstra & John Romalis, 2014. "International Prices and Endogenous Quality," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 129(2), pages 477-527.
    40. Yang, Shubo & Jahanger, Atif & Hossain, Mohammad Razib, 2023. "Does China's low-carbon city pilot intervention limit electricity consumption? An analysis of industrial energy efficiency using time-varying DID model," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    41. Mariassunta Giannetti & Guanmin Liao & Xiaoyun Yu, 2015. "The Brain Gain of Corporate Boards: Evidence from China," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 70(4), pages 1629-1682, August.
    42. Bas, Maria & Strauss-Kahn, Vanessa, 2015. "Input-trade liberalization, export prices and quality upgrading," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(2), pages 250-262.
    43. Hossain, Md. Emran & Islam, Md. Sayemul & Bandyopadhyay, Arunava & Awan, Ashar & Hossain, Mohammad Razib & Rej, Soumen, 2022. "Mexico at the crossroads of natural resource dependence and COP26 pledge: Does technological innovation help?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    44. James Levinsohn & Amil Petrin, 2003. "Estimating Production Functions Using Inputs to Control for Unobservables," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 70(2), pages 317-341.
    45. Qing He & Jack W. Hou & Boqun Wang & Ning Zhang, 2014. "Time-varying volatility in the Chinese economy: A regional perspective," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 93(2), pages 249-268, June.
    46. Zhang, Dongyang, 2022. "Environmental regulation, green innovation, and export product quality: What is the role of greenwashing?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    47. Li, Pei & Lu, Yi & Wang, Jin, 2016. "Does flattening government improve economic performance? Evidence from China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 18-37.
    48. Pei Xu & Penghao Ye & Atif Jahanger & Siwei Huang & Fan Zhao, 2023. "Can green credit policy reduce corporate carbon emission intensity: Evidence from China's listed firms," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(5), pages 2623-2638, September.
    49. Dinggen Zhou & Jingjing Yang & Mingyong Lai, 2019. "Input Trade Liberalization and the Export Duration of Products: Evidence from China," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 27(6), pages 1-25, November.
    50. Miaojie Yu, 2015. "Processing Trade, Tariff Reductions and Firm Productivity: Evidence from Chinese Firms," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 125(585), pages 943-988, June.
    51. Bala Ramasamy & Matthew C. H. Yeung, 2019. "China's one belt one road initiative: The impact of trade facilitation versus physical infrastructure on exports," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(6), pages 1673-1694, June.
    52. Rahman, Mohammad Mafizur & Sultana, Nahid, 2022. "Impacts of institutional quality, economic growth, and exports on renewable energy: Emerging countries perspective," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 189(C), pages 938-951.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Song Wang & Yuyao Cao & Yifan Wang & Chaoquan Wang, 2024. "The Impact of Innovative and Low-Carbon Pilot Cities on Green Innovation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(16), pages 1-27, August.
    2. Chenggang Wang & Dongxue Yang & Tiansen Liu, 2024. "The Impact of Factor Price Distortions on Export Technology Complexity: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(16), pages 1-27, August.
    3. Zhu, Huaijia & Chang, Shiwei & Chen, Bo & Zhu, Huaiqi, 2024. "How does military-civilian integration development influence corporate financial constraints in China? Evidence based on quasi-natural experiments," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 1273-1289.
    4. Ma, Dan & Zhu, Yanjin & Yang, Yuhan, 2024. "How Green finance affects export production quality: Fresh evidence from China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fan, Haichao & Li, Yao Amber & Yeaple, Stephen R., 2018. "On the relationship between quality and productivity: Evidence from China's accession to the WTO," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 28-49.
    2. Kong, Dongmin & Shi, Zheng & Xiong, Mengxu, 2024. "Currency overvaluation and export product quality: Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    3. Hayakawa, Kazunobu & Mukunoki, Hiroshi & Yang, Chih-hai, 2020. "Liberalization for services FDI and export quality: Evidence from China," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).
    4. He, Zhenyu & Tang, Yuwei, 2023. "Local environmental constraints and firms’ export product quality: Evidence from China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    5. Cecília Hornok & Balázs Muraközy, 2019. "Markups of Exporters and Importers: Evidence from Hungary," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 121(3), pages 1303-1333, July.
    6. Hayakawa, Kazunobu & Ito, Tadashi & Mukunoki, Hiroshi, 2022. "Lerner meets Metzler: Tariff pass-through of worldwide trade," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    7. Adriana Peluffo & Juan Ignacio Scasso, 2016. "Destination and source countries: Do they have a role on product quality?," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 16-10, Instituto de Economía - IECON.
    8. Saito, Hisamitsu, 2021. "Foreign direct investment and quality upgrading in Indonesian manufacturing," MPRA Paper 106770, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Fan, Haichao & Li, Yao Amber & Xu, Sichuang & Yeaple, Stephen R., 2020. "Quality, variable markups, and welfare: A quantitative general equilibrium analysis of export prices," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    10. Bas, Maria & Paunov, Caroline, 2021. "Input quality and skills are complementary and increase output quality: Causal evidence from Ecuador’s trade liberalization," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    11. Maria Bas & Caroline Paunov, 2019. "What gains and distributional implications result from trade liberalization," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 19003, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne.
    12. Freitag, Andreas & Lein, Sarah M., 2023. "Endogenous product adjustment and exchange rate pass-through," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    13. Tan, Yong & Zhao, Chen, 2017. "New Exporters and Continuing Exporters under Exchange Rate Fluctuations," MPRA Paper 77244, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Longzhou Wang, 2023. "The Impact of Environmental Regulation on Firms’ Product Quality: Evidence from Chinese Exporters," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 86(3), pages 645-672, November.
    15. Zhengwen Liu & Hong Ma, 2021. "Input Trade Liberalization And Markup Distribution: Evidence From China," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 59(1), pages 344-360, January.
    16. Li, Guangzhong & Li, Jie & Zheng, Ying & Egger, Peter H., 2021. "Does property rights protection affect export quality? Evidence from a property law enactment," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 811-832.
    17. Haichao Fan & Edwin L.-C. Lai & Han Steffan Qi, 2016. "Imported-input Trade Liberalization and Firms' Export Performance in China: Theory and Evidence," CESifo Working Paper Series 5828, CESifo.
    18. Liu, Qing & Qiu, Larry D. & Zhan, Chaoqun, 2024. "FDI inflows and export quality: Domestic competition and within-firm adjustment," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    19. Shang, Di & Diao, Gang & Zhao, Xiaodi, 2020. "Have China's regulations on imported waste paper improved its quality," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    20. Ming Xu & Tenglong Zhong & Qian Xie & Hongkui Liu, 2022. "Foreign Demand, Competition Strategy, and Export Markups: Evidence from Chinese Multi‐Product Exporters," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 30(3), pages 187-209, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecanpo:v:79:y:2023:i:c:p:462-478. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/economic-analysis-and-policy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.