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Input quality and skills are complementary and increase output quality: Causal evidence from Ecuador’s trade liberalization

Author

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  • Maria Bas

    (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Caroline Paunov

    (OCDE - Organisation de Coopération et de Développement Economiques = Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development)

Abstract

This paper tests for the production complementarity between firms' access to high-quality intermediate inputs and their skill composition and their joint impact on output quality. Using census data at firm-product level for Ecuador for 1997–2007, we exploit exogenous tariff changes at Ecuador's entry to the World Trade Organization to show that input tariff cuts allow firms to upgrade their input quality. Next, we demonstrate by means of within-firm instrumental variable estimations that firms' choices of imported input quality drive their relative demand for skilled labor and the skill premium. Imported input quality and firms' skill-composition jointly boost firms' output quality. Moreover, we show that firms that source domestic inputs produced by industries that import high-quality inputs also upgrade their skills and output quality. Our findings are not driven by our measures of quality, foreign demand shocks (export opportunities), Ecuador's financial crisis, real exchange rate variations, financial liberalization and other industry-level reforms.

Suggested Citation

  • Maria Bas & Caroline Paunov, 2021. "Input quality and skills are complementary and increase output quality: Causal evidence from Ecuador’s trade liberalization," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) hal-03211405, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:cesptp:hal-03211405
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2021.102668
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-03211405
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    4. Qian Feng & Hong Liu & Yuwei Liu & Hengyuan Zhao, 2023. "Selecting a Technological Progress Path and Upgrading Export Product Quality: Evidence From China," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(4), pages 21582440231, November.
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    6. Copestake, Alexander & Zhang, Wenzhang, 2023. "Inputs, networks and quality-upgrading: Evidence from China in India," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    7. Eyayu Tesfaye Mulugeta & Måns Söderbom, 2024. "Imported inputs and firm productivity: does foreign ownership matter?," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 685-704, July.
    8. John Gilbert & Onur A. Koska & Reza Oladi, 2023. "Foreign market entry, upstream market power, and endogenous mode of downstream competition," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(1), pages 341-362, February.
    9. Cui, Guanghui & Zhang, Yi & Ma, Jingwen & Yao, Wenyun, 2023. "Does environmental regulation affect the labor income share of manufacturing enterprises? Evidence from China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Foreign input quality; Input-skill complementarity; Skill intensity and skill premium; Output product quality; Input tariff reductions; Firm-product-level data; Ecuador;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F16 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade and Labor Market Interactions
    • O30 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - General
    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • O12 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • O54 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Latin America; Caribbean
    • L6 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing

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