Productivity and the Decision to Export: Micro Evidence from Taiwan and South Korea

While there is widespread empirical evidence indicating exporting producers have higher productivity than nonexporters, the mechanisms that generate this pattern are less clear. One view is that exporters acquire knowledge of new production methods, inputs, and product designs from their international contacts, and this learning results in higher productivity for exporters relative to their more insulated domestic counterparts. Alternatively, the higher productivity of exporters may simply reflect the self-selection of more efficient producers into a highly competitive export market. In this paper we use micro data collected in the manufacturing censuses in South Korea and Taiwan to study the linkages between a producer's total factor productivity and choice to participate in the export market. We find differences between the countries in the importance of selection and learning forces. In Taiwan, transitions of firms in and out of the export market reflect systematic variations in productivity as predicted by self-selection models. Firms with higher productivity, ex ante, tend to enter the export market and exporters with low productivity tend to exit. Moreover, in several industries, entry into the export market is followed by relative productivity improvements, a result consistent with learning-by-exporting forces. In South Korea, the evidence of self-selection on the basis of productivity is much weaker. In addition, unlike Taiwan, we find no significant productivity changes following entry or exit from the export market that are consistent with learning from exporting. Comparison of the two countries suggests that in Korea factors other than production efficiency play a more prominent role as determinants determinants of the export decision.

The Complementary Role of Exports and R&D Investments as Sources of Productivity Growth

This paper examines two potential channels of knowledge acquisition that underlie firm productivity growth in the Taiwanese electronics industry: participation in the export market and investments in R&D and/or worker training. We focus on the argument that a firm's own investments in R&D are necessary for the firm to assimilate knowledge or expertise gained from foreign contacts and thus are an important component of the process of learning-by-exporting. Firm-level panel data from 1986, 1991, and 1996 is used to investigate a firm's decision to invest in these two activities and to assess the effects of these investments on the firm's future total factor productivity. The empirical model consists of four equations. The firm's decisions to export and invest in R&D and/or worker training are modeled with a bivariate probit model that recognizes the interdependence of the decisions. We then estimate how participation in these investment activities alters the firm's future productivity trajectory while controlling for the potential selection bias introduced by endogenous firm exit. The primary empirical findings are that, on average, firms that export but do not invest in R&D and/or worker training have significantly higher future productivity than firms that do not participate in either activity. In addition, firms that export and invest in R&D and/or worker training have significantly higher future productivity than firms that only export. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that export experience is an important source of productivity growth for Taiwanese firms and that firm investments in R&D and worker training facilitate their ability to benefit from their exposure to the export market.

Decomposing firm-product appeal: How important is consumer taste? National Bank of Belgium Working Paper No. 337

We develop and structurally estimate a trade model in order to identify the importance of consumer taste. The model separates taste from quality and productivity (TFPQ) at the firm-product level. Export data by destination countries allow us to identify the level of taste from consumer heterogeneity across destinations. We decompose export revenue into the contribution of taste, quality and costs. We find that taste is very important and explains about 50 % of the variation in export revenue. Productivity (TFPQ) differences between firm-products become more prominent than taste in explaining export success only when the cost elasticity of improving quality is high

Firm-level evidence on productivity differentials, turnover, and exports in Taiwanese manufacturing

Recent dynamic models of firm entry and exit emphasise the relationship between a firm's productivity and the decision to enter or exit. If firm turnover is driven by productivity differentials then the reallocation of resources across firms at the micro level can have important implications for aggregate or industry-level productivity change. Using comprehensive firm-level panel data from the Taiwanese Census of Manufactures for the years 1981, 1986, and 1991, this paper documents the extent of firm turnover in both the domestic and export markets, uses index numbers to measure differences in total factor productivity between entering, exiting, and continuing firms, and quantifies the contribution of firm turnover to industry productivity improvements. We find significant differences in productivity across manufacturing firms and these differences are reflected in turnover patterns. Cohorts of new firms have lower average productivity than incumbents but are themselves a heterogeneous group. The more productive members of the group survive and, in many cases, their productivity converges to the productivity level of incumbents. Exiting firms are also less productive than survivors. Differences in productivity are also reflected in movements of firms in and out of the export market. Firms that remain exporters over multiple years have the highest productivity while beginning exporters, whether they are new firms or older firms, follow behind them. All are more productive on average than firms that exit the export market who, in turn, are more productive than firms that never exported. These patterns are consistent with the view that both the domestic and export market sort out high productivity from low productivity firms and that the export market is a tougher screen. Unlike the findings for most other countries, the differential productivity between entering and exiting firms is an important source of industry-level productivity improvements in the Taiwan manufacturing sector

Productivity, output, and failure

노트 : The views expressed herein are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the National Bureau of Economic Research

Factors and affect mobile telephone users to use mobile payment solution

Providing a convenient payment solution to mp3 users is one of the alternatives that can promote legal mp3 downloading. However, before the success of the payment solution can be determined, it is essential to understand whether it would be well-accepted by the users. This paper examines factors that influence the intention to use a mobile payment solution for mp3 downloading among university' students. Drawing from the Technology Acceptance Model, Theory of Planned Behaviour and previous literatures, five factors were hypothesized to influence the intention to use the payment solution, namely perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, trust, perceived price level, and peer influence. Final year business students at a public university in the southern part of Malaysia were chosen as respondents for this study. Multiple regressions were employed to analyze the data. Two factors were found to have significant effect on the intention to use the payment solution, which were trust and peer influence. Practical implications were proposed and discussed

GIVE: portable genome browsers for personal websites.

Growing popularity and diversity of genomic data demand portable and versatile genome browsers. Here, we present an open source programming library called GIVE that facilitates the creation of personalized genome browsers without requiring a system administrator. By inserting HTML tags, one can add to a personal webpage interactive visualization of multiple types of genomics data, including genome annotation, "linear" quantitative data, and genome interaction data. GIVE includes a graphical interface called HUG (HTML Universal Generator) that automatically generates HTML code for displaying user chosen data, which can be copy-pasted into user's personal website or saved and shared with collaborators. GIVE is available at: https://www.givengine.org/

Gene and protein expression of glucose transporter 1 and glucose transporter 3 in human laryngeal cancer—the relationship with regulatory hypoxia-inducible factor-1α expression, tumor invasiveness, and patient prognosis

Increased glucose uptake mediated by glucose transporters and reliance on glycolysis are common features of malignant cells. Hypoxia-inducible factor-1α supports the adaptation of hypoxic cells by inducing genes related to glucose metabolism. The contribution of glucose transporter (GLUT) and hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) activity to tumor behavior and their prognostic value in head and neck cancers remains unclear. The aim of this study was to examine the predictive value of GLUT1, GLUT3, and HIF-1α messenger RNA (mRNA)/protein expression as markers of tumor aggressiveness and prognosis in laryngeal cancer. The level of hypoxia/metabolic marker genes was determined in 106 squamous cell laryngeal cancer (SCC) and 73 noncancerous matched mucosa (NCM) controls using quantitative realtime PCR. The related protein levels were analyzed by Western blot. Positive expression of SLC2A1, SLC2A3, and HIF-1α genes was noted in 83.9, 82.1, and 71.7 % of SCC specimens and in 34.4, 59.4, and 62.5 % of laryngeal cancer samples. Higher levels of mRNA/protein for GLUT1 and HIF-1α were noted in SCC compared to NCM (p<0.05). SLC2A1 was found to have a positive relationship with grade, tumor front grading (TFG) score, and depth and mode of invasion (p<0.05). SLC2A3 was related to grade and invasion type (p<0.05). There were also relationships of HIF-1α with pTNM, TFG scale, invasion depth and mode, tumor recurrences, and overall survival (p<0.05). In addition, more advanced tumors were found to be more likely to demonstrate positive expression of these proteins. In conclusion, the hypoxia/metabolic markers studied could be used as molecular markers of tumor invasiveness in laryngeal cancer.This work was supported, in part, by the statutory fund of the Department of Cytobiochemistry, University of Łódź, Poland (506/811), and by grant fromtheNational Science Council, Poland (N403 043 32/2326)