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\"It's Not You, It's Me\" : Breakups in U.S.-China Trade Relationships

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Abstract
Costs to switching suppliers can affect prices by discouraging buyer movements from high to low cost sellers. This paper uses confidential U.S. Customs data on U.S. importers and their Chinese exporters to investigate these costs. I find considerable barriers to supply chain adjustments: 45% of arm?s-length importers keep their partner, and one-third of switching importers remain in the same city. Guided by these regularities, I propose and structurally estimate a dynamic discrete exporter choice model. Cost estimates are large and heterogeneous across products. These costs matter for trade prices: halving switching costs reduces the U.S.- China Import Price Index by 14.7%.

Suggested Citation

  • Ryan Monarch, 2016. "\"It's Not You, It's Me\" : Breakups in U.S.-China Trade Relationships," International Finance Discussion Papers 1165, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedgif:1165
    DOI: 10.17016/IFDP.2016.1165
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    Cited by:

    1. Andrew B. Bernard & Andreas Moxnes, 2018. "Networks and Trade," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 10(1), pages 65-85, August.
    2. Fariha Kamal & C.J. Krizan & Ryan Monarch, 2015. "Identifying Foreign Suppliers in U.S. Merchandise Import Transactions," Working Papers 15-11, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    3. Tim Schmidt-Eisenlohr & Ryan Monarch, 2015. "Learning and the Value of Relationships in International Trade," 2015 Meeting Papers 668, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    4. Fariha Kamal & Ryan Monarch, 2018. "Identifying foreign suppliers in U.S. import data," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(1), pages 117-139, February.
    5. Defever, Fabrice & Fischer, Christian & Suedekum, Jens, 2016. "Relational contracts and supplier turnover in the global economy," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 147-165.
    6. Egger, Peter H. & Erhardt, Katharina & Lassmann, Andrea, 2019. "Immigration and firms’ integration in international production networks," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 1-34.
    7. Shibi He & Volodymyr Lugovskyy, 2018. "Domestic Spillovers and Foreign Networks in Exporting," CAEPR Working Papers 2018-005, Center for Applied Economics and Policy Research, Department of Economics, Indiana University Bloomington.
    8. Carballo, Jeronimo & Ottaviano, Gianmarco I.P. & Volpe Martincus, Christian, 2018. "The buyer margins of firms' exports," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 33-49.
    9. 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.
    10. Kamal, Fariha & Sundaram, Asha, 2016. "Buyer–seller relationships in international trade: Do your neighbors matter?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 128-140.
    11. Colin J. Hottman & Ryan Monarch, 2018. "Estimating Unequal Gains across U.S. Consumers with Supplier Trade Data," Working Papers 18-04, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    12. Ryan Monarch & Tim Schmidt-Eisenlohr, 2017. "Learning and the Value of Trade Relationships," International Finance Discussion Papers 1218, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    13. Fabrice Defever & Christian Fischer & Jens Suedekum, 2017. "Supplier Search and Rematching in Global Sourcing - Theory and Evidence from China," CESifo Working Paper Series 6748, CESifo.
    14. Frank Asche & Atle Oglend & Hans-Martin Straume, 2021. "Tools of the trade: trade flexibility with respect to margins and buyers," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 61(4), pages 1959-1983, October.
    15. Adam Jakubik & Victor Stolzenburg, 2020. "Footloose Global Value Chains: How Trade Costs Make a Difference," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 57(2), pages 245-261, September.
    16. Aaron Flaaen, 2017. "The Role of Transfer Prices in Profit-Shifting by U.S. Multinational Firms : Evidence from the 2004 Homeland Investment Act," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2017-055, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    International Trade; import prices; Transactional Relationships;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • F23 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - Multinational Firms; International Business
    • L14 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Transactional Relationships; Contracts and Reputation
    • D21 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Theory

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