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Firm Innovation under Import Competition from Low-Wage Countries

Author

Listed:
  • Ujjayant Chakravorty
  • Runjuan Liu
  • Ruotao Tang
Abstract
In recent years, manufacturing firms in the United States have faced increasing import competition from low-wage countries, especially China. Does this competition hurt or help innovation by firms? This paper studies the effect of the surge in imports from China on innovation in the US manufacturing sector. We combine patent, firm and trade data during 1990-2006 for US publicly-listed firms in the Compustat dataset. We find consistent evidence that Chinese import competition had a positive effect on firm innovation, as measured by citation-weighted patent applications. This positive effect persists when we instrument import competition in the US by using Chinese import penetration in the United Kingdom. Next we investigate this relationship between import competition and innovation by considering industry and firm heterogeneity. We find that firms in low-tech industries and those with a lower degree of product differentiation show a significant positive response to import competition. Firms with a higher capital intensity and lower labor productivity also exhibit a greater response. These results are shown to be robust to a variety of measures for import penetration and innovation.

Suggested Citation

  • Ujjayant Chakravorty & Runjuan Liu & Ruotao Tang, 2017. "Firm Innovation under Import Competition from Low-Wage Countries," CESifo Working Paper Series 6569, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_6569
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    File URL: https://www.cesifo.org/DocDL/cesifo1_wp6569.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Pian Shu & Claudia Steinwender, 2019. "The Impact of Trade Liberalization on Firm Productivity and Innovation," Innovation Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 19(1), pages 39-68.
    2. Bas, Maria & Paunov, Caroline, 2021. "Disentangling trade reform impacts on firm market and production decisions," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    3. Andres, Pia, 2022. "Was the trade war justified? Solar PV innovation in Europe and the impact of the ‘China shock’," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 116945, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    import competition; innovation; international trade; manufacturing firms; patents;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F10 - International Economics - - Trade - - - General
    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
    • O32 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Management of Technological Innovation and R&D

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