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Trade intermediation by producers

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  • Erbahar, Aksel
  • Rebeyrol, Vincent

Abstract

This paper shows that manufacturing exporters export goods that they have not produced and thus also act as trade intermediaries. The geographical dimension of the data reveals that almost half of these exports of “sourced” products are purely intermediated: to many destinations, firms export sourced products only. We find that this type of intermediation is ubiquitous across firms, products, and destinations, and is robust to a battery of alternative definitions. These findings show that trade intermediation by producers (TIP) is not solely driven by carry-along trade, where produced and sourced products are bundled when exported. Our decomposition of TIP highlights that trade intermediation should be identified at the firm-product-destination level. The prevalence of pure intermediation for all manufacturing exporters, including the largest ones, suggests that intermediation plays an important role in firms' participation and success in international markets.

Suggested Citation

  • Erbahar, Aksel & Rebeyrol, Vincent, 2023. "Trade intermediation by producers," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:inecon:v:140:y:2023:i:c:s0022199622001258
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jinteco.2022.103693
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    3. Fauth Matthias & Jung Benjamin & Kohler Wilhelm, 2023. "German Firms in International Trade: Evidence from Recent Microdata," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 243(3-4), pages 199-284, June.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Trade intermediation; Intermediaries; Carry-along trade; Multi-product firms;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F12 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Models of Trade with Imperfect Competition and Scale Economies; Fragmentation
    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • L2 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior

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