IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecmode/v120y2023ics0264999322004217.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Internetization and the markups of export firms: Evidence from China

Author

Listed:
  • Shen, Guobing
  • Shen, Binchao
  • Wu, Ruochen
  • Yuan, Zhengyu

Abstract

Can internetization help Chinese exporting firms escape the “low markup trap”? We contend that it does, as internetization improves firms' capabilities and efficiencies in gathering and communicating information. We incorporate information costs and firm innovation choice into a heterogeneous firm model to test this hypothesis. The causality between firm-level internetization and markups is identified with a new instrumental variable designed to capture exogenous shocks to firm-level Internet exposure. After analyzing various internetization strategies, including social media, emails, and homepages, our results indicate that internetization directly increases the markups of Chinese exporting firms. In addition, with the enhanced information availability, internetization stimulates their innovation activities. Thus, we identify innovation as one channel, among others, through which internetization indirectly boosts the markups of China's export firms.

Suggested Citation

  • Shen, Guobing & Shen, Binchao & Wu, Ruochen & Yuan, Zhengyu, 2023. "Internetization and the markups of export firms: Evidence from China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecmode:v:120:y:2023:i:c:s0264999322004217
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econmod.2022.106184
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264999322004217
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econmod.2022.106184?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. Ian Domowitz & R. Glenn Hubbard & Bruce C. Petersen, 1986. "Business Cycles and the Relationship Between Concentration and Price-Cost Margins," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 17(1), pages 1-17, Spring.
    2. Feng, Ling & Li, Zhiyuan & Swenson, Deborah L., 2016. "The connection between imported intermediate inputs and exports: Evidence from Chinese firms," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 86-101.
    3. Jan De Loecker & Frederic Warzynski, 2012. "Markups and Firm-Level Export Status," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(6), pages 2437-2471, October.
    4. Carballo, Jerónimo & Rodriguez Chatruc, Marisol & Salas Santa, Catalina & Volpe Martincus, Christian, 2022. "Online business platforms and international trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    5. Forman, Chris & van Zeebroeck, Nicolas, 2019. "Digital technology adoption and knowledge flows within firms: Can the Internet overcome geographic and technological distance?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(8), pages 1-1.
    6. Itai Ater & Eugene Orlov, 2015. "The Effect of the Internet on Performance and Quality: Evidence from the Airline Industry," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 97(1), pages 180-194, March.
    7. Marc J. Melitz & Giancarlo I. P. Ottaviano, 2021. "Market Size, Trade, and Productivity," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Firms and Workers in a Globalized World Larger Markets, Tougher Competition, chapter 4, pages 87-108, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    8. Liu, Qing & Qiu, Larry D., 2016. "Intermediate input imports and innovations: Evidence from Chinese firms' patent filings," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 166-183.
    9. Alla Lileeva & Daniel Trefler, 2010. "Improved Access to Foreign Markets Raises Plant-level Productivity…For Some Plants," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 125(3), pages 1051-1099.
    10. Carliss Baldwin & Eric von Hippel, 2011. "Modeling a Paradigm Shift: From Producer Innovation to User and Open Collaborative Innovation," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(6), pages 1399-1417, December.
    11. Fernandes, Ana M. & Mattoo, Aaditya & Nguyen, Huy & Schiffbauer, Marc, 2019. "The internet and Chinese exports in the pre-ali baba era," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 57-76.
    12. Weche John P. & Wagner Joachim, 2021. "Markups and Concentration in the Context of Digitization: Evidence from German Manufacturing Industries," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 241(5-6), pages 667-699, November.
    13. Maggie X. Chen & Min Wu, 2021. "The Value of Reputation in Trade: Evidence from Alibaba," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 103(5), pages 857-873, December.
    14. Bertschek, Irene & Cerquera, Daniel & Klein, Gordon J., 2011. "More bits - more bucks? Measuring the impact of broadband internet on firm performance," ZEW Discussion Papers 11-032, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    15. Cassiman, Bruno & Vanormelingen, Stijn, 2013. "Profiting From Innovation: Firm Level Evidence on Markups," IESE Research Papers D/1079, IESE Business School.
    16. Antoniades, Alexis, 2015. "Heterogeneous Firms, Quality, and Trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(2), pages 263-273.
    17. James Heckman & Rodrigo Pinto & Peter Savelyev, 2013. "Understanding the Mechanisms through Which an Influential Early Childhood Program Boosted Adult Outcomes," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(6), pages 2052-2086, October.
    18. Costas Arkolakis, 2010. "Market Penetration Costs and the New Consumers Margin in International Trade," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 118(6), pages 1151-1199.
    19. Anderson, Simon P & Renault, Regis, 2000. "Consumer Information and Firm Pricing: Negative Externalities from Improved Information," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 41(3), pages 721-742, August.
    20. Zhang, Hongyong & Zhu, Lianming, 2017. "Markups and exporting behavior of foreign affiliates," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(3), pages 445-455.
    21. Hu, Xiaotian & Yin, Xiaopeng, 2022. "Do stronger intellectual property rights protections raise productivity within the context of trade liberalization? Evidence from China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    22. Nicholas Bloom & Raffaella Sadun & John Van Reenen, 2012. "Americans Do IT Better: US Multinationals and the Productivity Miracle," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(1), pages 167-201, February.
    23. Bai, Yu & Li, Yanjun & Wang, Yunuo, 2022. "Chinese aid and local political attitudes," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    24. Andreas Fagereng & Magne Mogstad & Marte Rønning, 2021. "Why Do Wealthy Parents Have Wealthy Children?," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 129(3), pages 703-756.
    25. Marc J. Melitz & Gianmarco I. P. Ottaviano, 2008. "Market Size, Trade, and Productivity (DOI:10.111/j.1467-937x.2007.00463.x)," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 75(3), pages 985-985.
    26. Ernest Miguelez & Ufuk Akcigit & Stefanie Stantcheva & Valerio Sterzi & Santiago Caicedo, 2018. "Dancing with the Stars: Innovation Through Interactions," Post-Print hal-02274133, HAL.
    27. Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham & Isaac Sorkin & Henry Swift, 2020. "Bartik Instruments: What, When, Why, and How," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(8), pages 2586-2624, August.
    28. Chen, Zhibin & Xu, Yibin & Tian, Zongtao & Meng, Xu, 2022. "The Impact of Social Insurance Law on Corporate Innovation: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    29. Sara Calligaris & Chiara Criscuolo & Luca Marcolin, 2018. "Mark-ups in the digital era," OECD Science, Technology and Industry Working Papers 2018/10, OECD Publishing.
    30. Du, Pengcheng & Wang, Shuxun, 2020. "The effect of minimum wage on firm markup: Evidence from China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 241-250.
    31. Koellinger, Philipp, 2008. "The relationship between technology, innovation, and firm performance--Empirical evidence from e-business in Europe," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(8), pages 1317-1328, September.
    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. Gutiérrez-Romero, Roxana, 2024. "Drug trafficking fuels violence leading to mass emigration: The case of Guatemala," Economic Modelling, 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. Xianhai Huang & Yi Wang & Zhujun Zhu & Xueyin Song, 2022. "Quality of imported intermediates, innovation behaviour and markups: Firm‐level evidence from China," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(9), pages 2796-2819, September.
    2. Carsten Eckel & Florian Unger, 2023. "Credit Constraints, Endogenous Innovations, And Price Setting In International Trade," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 64(4), pages 1715-1747, November.
    3. Békés, Gábor & Hornok, Cecília & Muraközy, Balázs, 2016. "Globalization and the markups of European firms," Kiel Working Papers 2044, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    4. Yang, Chih-Hai, 2023. "Competition in the Chinese market: Foreign firms and markups," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    5. Sun, Churen & Wu, Han, 2023. "The impact of export VAT rebate on firm-product markups: Evidence from Chinese industrial enterprises," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    6. Jin, Gang & Zhang, Jiwen & Ye, Yongwei & Yao, Shiqi & Song, Jingxiang, 2024. "Social insurance law and firm markup in China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    7. Di Ubaldo, Mattia, 2016. "Firms and trade in downturns," Economics PhD Theses 0416, Department of Economics, University of Sussex Business School.
    8. Siying Ding & Ahmad Lashkaripour & Volodymyr Lugovskyy, 2024. "A Global Perspective on the Incidence of Monopoly Distortions," CESifo Working Paper Series 11211, CESifo.
    9. Alvaro Garcia Marin & Nico Voigtländer, 2018. "Product-Level Efficiency and Core Competence in Multi-Product Plants," 2018 Meeting Papers 737, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    10. 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).
    11. Bai, Xue & Hong, Shengjie & Wang, Yaqi, 2021. "Learning from processing trade: Firm evidence from China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 579-602.
    12. Hu, Zhongzhong & Rodrigue, Joel & Tan, Yong & Yu, Chunhai, 2017. "Product churning, reallocation, and Chinese export growth," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 147-164.
    13. Jung, Jae Wook & Simonovska, Ina & Weinberger, Ariel, 2019. "Exporter heterogeneity and price discrimination: A quantitative view," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 103-124.
    14. Ziran Ding, 2022. "Firm heterogeneity, variable markups, and multinational production: A review from trade policy perspective," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(5), pages 1311-1357, December.
    15. Umut Kilinç, 2019. "Export Destination Characteristics and Markups: The Role of Country Size," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 86(341), pages 116-138, January.
    16. Barrows, Geoffrey & Ollivier, Hélène, 2021. "Foreign demand, developing country exports, and CO2 emissions: Firm-level evidence from India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    17. Stiebale, Joel & Vencappa, Dev, 2022. "Import competition and vertical integration: Evidence from India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    18. Hsu, Wen-Tai & Lu, Yi & Luo, Xuan & Zhu, Lianming, 2023. "Foreign direct investment and industrial agglomeration: Evidence from China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(2), pages 610-639.
    19. Melitz, Marc J. & Redding, Stephen J., 2014. "Heterogeneous Firms and Trade," Handbook of International Economics, in: Gopinath, G. & Helpman, . & Rogoff, K. (ed.), Handbook of International Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 0, pages 1-54, Elsevier.
    20. Fieler, Ana Cecília & Harrison, Ann E., 2023. "Escaping import competition in China," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Internetization; Social media; Firm innovation; Export; Markups;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D21 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Theory
    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
    • C26 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Instrumental Variables (IV) Estimation

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:ecmode:v:120:y:2023:i:c:s0264999322004217. 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.elsevier.com/locate/inca/30411 .

    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.