IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/idb/brikps/12525.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Multinational Production and Intra-firm Trade

Author

Listed:
  • Alviarez, Vanessa
  • Saad, Ayhab

Abstract

Intra-firm trade, from parents to affiliates, has been combined with standard models of multinational production (MP) to deliver gravity-style predictions for foreign affiliates' sales. Nonetheless, the evidence shows that intra-firm trade is concentrated among a small set of large multinational firms. Using firm-level data from 35 countries, we document that only firms belonging to multinational corporations (MNCs) in the upper tail of the firms size distribution are significantly affected by the distance to their parents. We present a simple framework featuring MNCs selection into intra-firm trade and derive the analytical gravity equations that are consistent with the empirical findings.

Suggested Citation

  • Alviarez, Vanessa & Saad, Ayhab, 2022. "Multinational Production and Intra-firm Trade," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 12525, Inter-American Development Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:idb:brikps:12525
    DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18235/0004566
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://publications.iadb.org/publications/english/document/Multinational-Production-and-Intra-firm-Trade.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/http://dx.doi.org/10.18235/0004566?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Natalia Ramondo & Andrés Rodríguez-Clare, 2013. "Trade, Multinational Production, and the Gains from Openness," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 121(2), pages 273-322.
    2. Gregory Corcos & Delphine M. Irac & Giordano Mion & Thierry Verdier, 2013. "The Determinants of Intrafirm Trade: Evidence from French Firms," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 95(3), pages 825-838, July.
    3. Thomas Chaney, 2008. "Distorted Gravity: The Intensive and Extensive Margins of International Trade," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 98(4), pages 1707-1721, September.
    4. Arnaud Costinot, 2009. "An Elementary Theory of Comparative Advantage," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 77(4), pages 1165-1192, July.
    5. repec:hal:pseose:halshs-00879809 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Maria Borga & William J. Zeile, 2004. "International Fragmentation of Production and the Intrafirm Trade of U.s. Multinational Companies," BEA Papers 0035, Bureau of Economic Analysis.
    7. Sotiris Blanas & Adnan Seric, 2018. "Determinants of intra‐firm trade: Evidence from foreign affiliates in Sub‐Saharan Africa," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(4), pages 917-956, September.
    8. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/6apm7lruv088iagm4rv2c33jtg is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Thomas Chaney, 2008. "Distorted Gravity: The Intensive and Extensive Margins of International Trade," SciencePo Working papers hal-03579844, HAL.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Yuko Imura, 2023. "Reassessing Trade Barriers with Global Production Networks," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 51, pages 77-116, December.
    2. Bolatto, Stefano & Moramarco, Graziano, 2023. "Gains from trade and their quantification: Does sectoral disaggregation matter?," International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 174(C), pages 44-68.
    3. Kox, Henk L.M., 2022. "A micro-macro model of foreign direct investment: knowledge-based gravity forces, self-selection and third-country effects," MPRA Paper 115542, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Kox, Henk L.M., 2022. "Explaining foreign direct investment patterns: a testable micro-macro gravity model for FDI," MPRA Paper 115273, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Pol Antràs & Teresa C. Fort & Felix Tintelnot, 2017. "The Margins of Global Sourcing: Theory and Evidence from US Firms," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(9), pages 2514-2564, September.
    6. Pisch, Frank & Berlingieri, Giuseppe, 2022. "Managing Export Complexity: The Role of Service Outsourcing," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 135680, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    7. Ziran Ding, 2022. "Firm heterogeneity, variable markups, and multinational production: A review from trade policy perspective," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(5), pages 1311-1357, December.
    8. Pol Antràs & Davin Chor, 2021. "Global Value Chains," NBER Working Papers 28549, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Liu, Chen & Ma, Xiao, 2023. "Migration, tariffs, and China's export surge," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    10. ARA Tomohiro, 2022. "Global Firms: New welfare implications from importing-exporting," Discussion papers 22071, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    11. Benkovskis, Konstantins & Wörz, Julia, 2018. "What drives the market share changes? Price versus non-price factors," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 9-29.
    12. Chunyan Li & Jianmei Gao & Lanqing Ge & Weina Hu & Qi Ban, 2023. "Do Geographical Indication Products Promote the Growth of the Agricultural Economy? An Empirical Study Based on Meta-Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(19), pages 1-21, October.
    13. Andrew B. Bernard & J. Bradford Jensen & Stephen J. Redding & Peter K. Schott, 2018. "Global Firms," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 56(2), pages 565-619, June.
    14. Rouzet, Dorothée & Benz, Sebastian & Spinelli, Francesca, 2017. "Trading Firms and Trading Costs in Services: Firm-Level Analysis," Conference papers 332911, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    15. Head, Keith & Mayer, Thierry, 2014. "Gravity Equations: Workhorse,Toolkit, and Cookbook," Handbook of International Economics, in: Gopinath, G. & Helpman, . & Rogoff, K. (ed.), Handbook of International Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 0, pages 131-195, Elsevier.
    16. Shi, Jiao, 2019. "Vertical FDI and exchange rates over the business cycle: The welfare implications of openness to FDI," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 274-293.
    17. Brancati, Emanuele, 2022. "Help in a Foreign Land: Internationalized Banks and Firms’ Export," IZA Discussion Papers 15458, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Banri Ito & Katsunori Shirai, 2023. "Patent law harmonization and international trade," International Journal of Economic Policy Studies, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 289-306, February.
    19. Giorgio Barba Navaretti & Lionel Fontagné & Gianluca Orefice & Giovanni Pica & Anna Cecilia Rosso, 2024. "TBTs, firm organization and labor structure," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(3), pages 958-992, August.
    20. Thomas Chaney, 2018. "The Gravity Equation in International Trade: An Explanation," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 126(1), pages 150-177.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Intra-firm trade; Multinational Production;

    JEL classification:

    • F12 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Models of Trade with Imperfect Competition and Scale Economies; Fragmentation
    • F23 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - Multinational Firms; International Business

    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:idb:brikps:12525. 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: Felipe Herrera Library (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iadbbus.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.