IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/eti/dpaper/20085.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Product Complexity, Exports, and Exchange Rates: Evidence from the Japanese Chemical Industry

Author

Listed:
  • Willem THORBECKE
  • Nimesh SALIKE
  • CHEN Chen

Abstract

We investigate how exchange rates affect the Japanese chemical industry. Focusing on exports in a single industry from a single country reduces the influence of other factors that could cloud inference. We find that stock returns of firms linked to commoditized industries decrease when the yen appreciates. Also, since more complex products are less substitutable in international trade, we investigate whether they have lower price elasticities. We measure complexity using Hausmann and Hidalgo's (2009) product complexity index. We find that price elasticities are lower for more complex goods. These results suggest that exporting sophisticated products could reduce export and profit volatility arising from exchange rate swings.

Suggested Citation

  • Willem THORBECKE & Nimesh SALIKE & CHEN Chen, 2020. "Product Complexity, Exports, and Exchange Rates: Evidence from the Japanese Chemical Industry," Discussion papers 20085, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    • Handle: RePEc:eti:dpaper:20085
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.rieti.go.jp/jp/publications/dp/20e085.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Thorbecke, Willem & Kato, Atsuyuki, 2018. "Exchange rates and the Swiss economy," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 40(6), pages 1182-1199.
    2. Bernard, Andrew & Fort, Teresa & Smeets, Valerie & Warzynski, Frederic, 2020. "Heterogeneous Globalization: Offshoring and Reorganization," CEPR Discussion Papers 14485, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    3. Dominguez, Kathryn M.E. & Tesar, Linda L., 2006. "Exchange rate exposure," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 188-218, January.
    4. Raphael Auer & Philip Saure, 2011. "Export basket and the effects of exchange rates on exports–why Switzerland is special," Globalization Institute Working Papers 77, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
    5. Horst Entorf & Jochen Moebert & Katja Sonderhof, 2011. "The Foreign Exchange Rate Exposure of Nations," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 339-353, April.
    6. Agnès Bénassy‐Quéré & Matthieu Bussière & Pauline Wibaux, 2021. "Trade and currency weapons," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(3), pages 487-510, August.
    7. Willem Thorbecke & Nimesh Salike, 2020. "Export Sophistication and Trade Elasticities," Journal of Asian Economic Integration, , vol. 2(1), pages 7-26, April.
    8. Abdul Abiad & Kristina Baris & John Arvin Bernabe & Donald Jay Bertulfo & Shiela Camingue-Romance & Paul Neilmer Feliciano & Mahinthan Joseph Mariasingham & Valerie Mercer-Blackman, 2018. "The Impact of Trade Conflict on Developing Asia," Working Papers id:12953, eSocialSciences.
    9. Ito, Takatoshi & Koibuchi, Satoshi & Sato, Kiyotaka & Shimizu, Junko, 2016. "Exchange rate exposure and risk management: The case of Japanese exporting firms," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 17-29.
    10. Ms. Elif C Arbatli Saxegaard & Mr. Gee Hee Hong, 2016. "Singapore’s Export Elasticities: A Disaggregated Look into the Role of Global Value Chains and Economic Complexity," IMF Working Papers 2016/052, International Monetary Fund.
    11. Cesar A. Hidalgo & Ricardo Hausmann, 2009. "The Building Blocks of Economic Complexity," Papers 0909.3890, arXiv.org.
    12. Thorbecke, Willem, 2019. "Why Japan lost its comparative advantage in producing electronic parts and components," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    13. Kiyotaka Sato & Junko Shimizu & Nagendra Shrestha & Shajuan Zhang, 2013. "Industry-specific Real Effective Exchange Rates and Export Price Competitiveness: The Cases of Japan, China, and Korea," Asian Economic Policy Review, Japan Center for Economic Research, vol. 8(2), pages 298-321, December.
    14. SATO Kiyotaka & SHIMIZU Junko & Nagendra SHRESTHA & Shajuan ZHANG, 2012. "Industry-specific Real Effective Exchange Rates for Japan," Discussion papers 12044, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    15. Baek, Jungho, 2013. "Does the exchange rate matter to bilateral trade between Korea and Japan? Evidence from commodity trade data," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 856-862.
    16. Nguyen, Thi-Ngoc Anh & Sato, Kiyotaka, 2019. "Firm predicted exchange rates and nonlinearities in pricing-to-market," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 1-1.
    17. Philip Sauré, 2015. "The Resilient Trade Surplus, the Pharmaceutical Sector, and Exchange Rate Assessments in Switzerland," Working Paper Series WP15-11, Peterson Institute for International Economics.
    18. Atsuyuki Kato, 2015. "Effects of exchange rate changes on East Asian technology-intensive exports," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(6), pages 809-821, September.
    19. International Monetary Fund, 2013. "Switzerland: Selected Issues Paper," IMF Staff Country Reports 2013/129, International Monetary Fund.
    20. Jayasinghe, Prabhath & Tsui, Albert K., 2008. "Exchange rate exposure of sectoral returns and volatilities: Evidence from Japanese industrial sectors," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 639-660, December.
    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. Willem THORBECKE, 2022. "Investigating How Exchange Rates Affected the Japanese Economy after the Advent of Abenomics," Discussion papers 22003, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).

    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. Thorbecke, Willem & Salike, Nimesh & Chen, Chen, 2022. "The impact of exchange rate changes on the Japanese chemical industry," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    2. Willem THORBECKE, 2020. "Weathering Safe Haven Capital Flows: Evidence from the Japanese Transportation Equipment Industry," Discussion papers 20024, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    3. Willem Thorbecke, 2021. "East Asian and European Firms: Comrades or Competitors," Working Papers hal-03483959, HAL.
    4. Thorbecke, Willem & Kato, Atsuyuki, 2018. "Exchange rates and the Swiss economy," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 40(6), pages 1182-1199.
    5. Willem Thorbecke & Nimesh Salike, 2020. "Export Sophistication and Trade Elasticities," Journal of Asian Economic Integration, , vol. 2(1), pages 7-26, April.
    6. Willem Thorbecke, 2021. "The Exposure of French and South Korean Firm Stock Returns to Exchange Rates and the COVID-19 Pandemic," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-29, April.
    7. Willem THORBECKE, 2024. "Investigating Japan’s Machinery and Equipment Exports after the Global Financial Crisis," Discussion papers 24033, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    8. Thorbecke, Willem, 2020. "How Japanese firms can weather endaka periods: Evidence from the transportation equipment industry," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    9. Kawasaki, Kentaro & Sato, Kiyotaka, 2021. "A new assessment of economic integration in East Asia: Application of an industry-specific G-PPP model," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    10. Willem THORBECKE, 2021. "The Exposure of French and South Korean Firms to Exchange Rates and the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence from the Stock Market," Discussion papers 21017, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    11. Willem THORBECKE & CHEN Chen & Nimesh SALIKE, 2020. "The Relationship between Product Complexity and Exchange Rate Elasticities: Evidence from the People's Republic of China's Manufacturing Industries," Discussion papers 20075, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    12. Chen Chen & Nimesh Salike & Willem Thorbecke, 2023. "Exchange rate effects on China's exports: Product sophistication and exchange rate elasticity," Asian Economic Journal, East Asian Economic Association, vol. 37(3), pages 371-400, September.
    13. Willem THORBECKE, 2017. "A Yen for Change: The strong yen and the Japanese automobile industry," Discussion papers 17005, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    14. Thorbecke, Willem, 2018. "The exposure of U.S. manufacturing industries to exchange rates," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 538-549.
    15. Ansgar Belke & Ulrich Volz, 2020. "The Yen Exchange Rate and the Hollowing Out of the Japanese Industry," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 31(2), pages 371-406, April.
    16. Jing Nie & Zhichao Zhang & Zhuang Zhang & Si Zhou, 2015. "Currency Exposure in China under the New Exchange Rate Regime: National Level Evidence," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 23(3), pages 97-109, May.
    17. Sung C. Bae & Taek Ho Kwon, 2023. "Exchange Rate Risk Management using Currency Derivatives: The Case of Exposures to Japanese Yen," Asia-Pacific Financial Markets, Springer;Japanese Association of Financial Economics and Engineering, vol. 30(3), pages 621-647, September.
    18. Snober Fazal & Muhammad Azhar Bhatti & Tusawar Iftikhar Ahmad, 2019. "Sectorial growth, Exchange rate and Fiscal policy in Developing Economies: The Interlinkages," iRASD Journal of Economics, International Research Alliance for Sustainable Development (iRASD), vol. 1(2), pages 68-81, December.
    19. Thorbecke, Willem, 2019. "Why Japan lost its comparative advantage in producing electronic parts and components," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    20. Mohsen Bahmani‐Oskooee & Huseyin Karamelikli, 2019. "Exchange rate volatility and Japan–U.S. commodity trade: An asymmetry analysis," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(11), pages 3287-3318, November.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:eti:dpaper:20085. 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: TANIMOTO, Toko (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/rietijp.html .

    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.