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Indonesia and China: Friends or Foes? Quality Competition and Firm Productivity

Author

Listed:
  • Lili Yan Ing

    (Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), University of Indonesia)

  • Miaojie Yu

    (Peking University)

  • Rui Zhang

    (Peking University)

Abstract

We define and measure “firm-product-destination-year-specific export quality” and investigate how quality competition from China affects Indonesian firm productivity in the domestic and export markets. Our results suggest that an increase in Chinese exported product quality by 10 percent will increase the productivity of Indonesian firms by 0.4 - 0.5 percent in Indonesia’s domestic market, and increase Indonesian exporters’ productivity by 2 percent in the export market. Where we limit our sample to exporters only, an increase in Chinese exported product quality will increase Indonesian firm productivity in the export market, but not in the domestic market. Our findings broaden the horizon through which firms could benefit from opening up to trade.

Suggested Citation

  • Lili Yan Ing & Miaojie Yu & Rui Zhang, 2016. "Indonesia and China: Friends or Foes? Quality Competition and Firm Productivity," Working Papers DP-2016-29, Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA).
  • Handle: RePEc:era:wpaper:dp-2016-29
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    File URL: http://www.eria.org/ERIA-DP-2016-29.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Mari Pangestu & Lili Yan Ing & Gracia Hadiwidjaja, 2018. "The Future of East Asia’s Trade: A Call for Better Globalization," Asian Economic Policy Review, Japan Center for Economic Research, vol. 13(2), pages 219-238, July.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Quality; productivity; competition; firm-level study; China; Indonesia;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F1 - International Economics - - Trade
    • F12 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Models of Trade with Imperfect Competition and Scale Economies; Fragmentation
    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations
    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade

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