IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecmode/v29y2012i4p1189-1196.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Are unit export values correct measures of the exports’ quality?

Author

Listed:
  • Szczygielski, Krzysztof
  • Grabowski, Wojciech

Abstract

It has become common to measure the quality of exports using their unit export value (UEV). Applications of this method include studies of intra-industry trade (IIT) and analyses of industrial ‘competitiveness.’ This literature seems to assume that export quality and export price (the most natural interpretation of UEV) are not merely correlated but that they follow each other one-for-one. We put this assumption under scrutiny from both a theoretical and empirical point of view. In terms of theory, we formalize this assumption as a hypothesis of the proportionality of equilibrium prices and equilibrium qualities. We discuss several cases for which this hypothesis is theoretically doubtful (nonlinear utility and cost functions; strong and asymmetric horizontal product differentiation). We also suggest a method of verifying the hypothesis for cases in which it cannot be easily rejected theoretically. This method is then applied to German imports in the period of 1994–2009. We find that the implications of the proportionality hypothesis are largely contradicted by the data.

Suggested Citation

  • Szczygielski, Krzysztof & Grabowski, Wojciech, 2012. "Are unit export values correct measures of the exports’ quality?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 1189-1196.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecmode:v:29:y:2012:i:4:p:1189-1196
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econmod.2012.03.008
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264999312000648
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econmod.2012.03.008?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 look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andrew Atkeson & Ariel Burstein, 2008. "Pricing-to-Market, Trade Costs, and International Relative Prices," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(5), pages 1998-2031, December.
    2. Lionel Fontagné & Michael Freudenberg & Guillaume Gaulier, 2006. "A Systematic Decomposition of World Trade into Horizontal and Vertical IIT," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 142(3), pages 459-475, October.
    3. Gabszewicz, Jean Jaskold, et al, 1981. "International Trade in Differentiated Products," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 22(3), pages 527-534, October.
    4. Jørgen Nielsen & Teit Lüthje, 2002. "Tests of the empirical classification of horizontal and vertical intra-industry trade," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 138(4), pages 587-604, December.
    5. Gabszewicz, Jean Jaskold & Thisse, Jacques-Francois, 1982. "Product Differentiation with Income Disparities: An Illustrative Model," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(1-2), pages 115-129, September.
    6. Brécard, Dorothée, 2010. "On production costs in vertical differentiation models," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 109(3), pages 183-186, December.
    7. Shaked, Avner & Sutton, John, 1987. "Product Differentiation and Industrial Structure," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(2), pages 131-146, December.
    8. Hallak, Juan Carlos, 2006. "Product quality and the direction of trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 238-265, January.
    9. Avner Shaked & John Sutton, 1982. "Relaxing Price Competition Through Product Differentiation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 49(1), pages 3-13.
    10. Cremer, Helmuth & Thisse, Jacques-Francois, 1994. "Commodity Taxation in a Differentiated Oligopoly," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 35(3), pages 613-633, August.
    11. Abdul K. M. Azhar & Robert J. R. Elliott, 2006. "On the Measurement of Product Quality in Intra-Industry Trade," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 142(3), pages 476-495, October.
    12. Amemiya, Takeshi, 1984. "Tobit models: A survey," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 24(1-2), pages 3-61.
    13. 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.
    14. Rosen, Sherwin, 1974. "Hedonic Prices and Implicit Markets: Product Differentiation in Pure Competition," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 82(1), pages 34-55, Jan.-Feb..
    15. Uwe Dulleck & Neil Foster & Robert Stehrer & Julia Woerz, 2005. "Dimensions of quality upgrading," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 13(1), pages 51-76, January.
    16. Flam, Harry & Helpman, Elhanan, 1987. "Vertical Product Differentiation and North-South Trade," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 77(5), pages 810-822, December.
    17. Joakim Gullstrand, 2002. "Does the measurement of intra-industry trade matter?," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 138(2), pages 317-339, June.
    18. Shaked, Avner & Sutton, John, 1983. "Natural Oligopolies," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 51(5), pages 1469-1483, 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. Baiardi, Donatella & Bianchi, Carluccio, 2019. "At the roots of China's striking performance in textile exports: A comparison with its main Asian competitors," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 367-389.
    2. Gnangnon, Sèna Kimm, 2022. "Effect of the utilization of non-reciprocal trade preferences offered by the QUAD countries on beneficiary countries' economic complexity," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    3. Crespo, Nuno & Simões, Nádia, 2012. "On the measurement of a multidimensional concept of structural similarity," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 116(1), pages 115-117.

    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. repec:wsr:wpaper:y:2019:i:193 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Eleonora Cavallaro & Piero Esposito & Alessia Matano & Marcella Mulino, 2013. "Technological Catching Up, Quality of Exports, and Competitiveness: A Sectoral Perspective," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(6), pages 4-21, November.
    3. Auer, Raphael A. & Sauré, Philip, 2017. "Dynamic entry in vertically differentiated markets," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 177-205.
    4. Baiardi, Donatella & Bianchi, Carluccio, 2019. "At the roots of China's striking performance in textile exports: A comparison with its main Asian competitors," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 367-389.
    5. Jørgen Hansen & Jørgen Nielsen, 2009. "Dumping and Injury Margins in Markets with Horizontal as well as Vertical Product Differentiation," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 9(3), pages 233-250, September.
    6. Picard, Pierre M. & Okubo, Toshihiro, 2012. "Firms' locations under demand heterogeneity," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(6), pages 961-974.
    7. Maurice Kugler & Eric Verhoogen, 2012. "Prices, Plant Size, and Product Quality," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 79(1), pages 307-339.
    8. Ferto, Imre & Podruzsik, Szilard & Balogh, Jeremiás, 2014. "Intra - industry trade in the wine industry in the enlarged European Union," 142nd Seminar, May 29-30, 2014, Budapest, Hungary 169092, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    9. Pablo Fajgelbaum & Gene M. Grossman & Elhanan Helpman, 2011. "Income Distribution, Product Quality, and International Trade," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 119(4), pages 721-765.
    10. Alcalá, Francisco, 2016. "Specialization across goods and export quality," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 216-232.
    11. Mr. Ashoka Mody & Ms. Deniz O Igan & Ms. Stefania Fabrizio, 2007. "The Dynamics of Product Quality and International Competitiveness," IMF Working Papers 2007/097, International Monetary Fund.
    12. Eric A. Verhoogen, 2008. "Trade, Quality Upgrading, and Wage Inequality in the Mexican Manufacturing Sector," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 123(2), pages 489-530.
    13. A. Auer, Raphael & Chaney, Thomas & Sauré, Philip, 2018. "Quality pricing-to-market," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 87-102.
    14. Freitag, Andreas & Lein, Sarah M., 2023. "Endogenous product adjustment and exchange rate pass-through," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    15. Juan Esteban Carranza & Alejandra González-Ramírez & Alex Perez, 2020. "The quality and the destination of the colombian manufacturing exports," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(3), pages 247-271, April.
    16. Tadashi Ito & Toshihiro Okubo, 2016. "Product Quality And Intra-Industry Trade," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 61(04), pages 1-22, September.
    17. Emanuele Bacchiega & Antonio Minniti & Arsen Palestini, 2016. "Quality, distance and trade: A strategic approach," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 95, pages 165-191, March.
    18. Imre Fertő & Szilárd Podruzsik & Jeremiás Balogh, 2016. "Intra-industry trade in the wine sector in the enlarged European Union," Review of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Studies, Springer, vol. 97(3), pages 159-172, November.
    19. Constantatos, Christos & Perrakis, Stylianos, 1995. "Différenciation verticale et structure du marché," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 71(1), pages 71-98, mars.
    20. Lashkaripour, Ahmad, 2020. "Discrete trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    21. Abdul K. M. Azhar & Robert J. R. Elliott, 2008. "On the Measurement of Changes in Product Quality in Marginal Intra-Industry Trade," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 144(2), pages 225-247, July.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • F10 - International Economics - - Trade - - - General
    • F12 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Models of Trade with Imperfect Competition and Scale Economies; Fragmentation
    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade

    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:29:y:2012:i:4:p:1189-1196. 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.