TY - JOUR A1 - Cardot, Olivier A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Pierola, Martha Denisse A1 - Rauch, Ferdinand T1 - Success and failure of African exporters JF - Journal of Development Economics N2 - Using a new dataset with transaction-level export data from four African countries (Malawi, Mali, Senegal and Tanzania), this paper explores the determinants of success upon entry into export markets, defined as survival beyond the first year at the firm-product-destination level. We find that the probability of success rises with the number of same-country firms exporting the same product to the same destination, suggesting the existence of cross-firm externalities. We explore several conjectures on the determinants of these externalities and provide evidence suggestive of information spillovers, possibly mediated through the banking system. Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2012.12.004 VL - 101 SP - 284 EP - 296 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Rauch, Ferdinand A1 - Winters, L Alan T1 - Trade as an engine of creative destruction: Mexican experience with Chinese competition JF - Journal of International Economics N2 - This paper exploits the surge in Chinese exports from 1994 to 2004 to evaluate the effects of a competition shock from a low wage competitor for producers in an important middle-income country, Mexico. We find that this shock causes selection and reallocation at both firm and product levels and that its impact is highly heterogeneous at the intensive and extensive margins. Sales of smaller plants and more marginal products are compressed and are more likely to cease, whereas those of larger plants and core products seem relatively impervious to the shock. This implies a reallocation in terms of market shares within firms and between firms. We also show that the impact of expanded access to cheaper Chinese intermediate inputs has a similar effect, with larger plants benefiting more from the availability of cheaper imported inputs. Y1 - 2013 UR - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinteco.2012.09.002 VL - 89 IS - 2 SP - 379 EP - 392 ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Keller, Wolfgang A1 - Rauch, Ferdinand T1 - Innovation responses to import competition N2 - How does trade liberalization that raises a country’s import competition affect the innovative activity of its firms? We exploit the strong growth of Chinese exports resulting from China’s entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001 as a competitive shock to, specifically, Mexican manufacturing firms. Innovation is captured through information on the adoption of detailed firm level production techniques such as just in time inventory methods, quality control measures, and job rotation among the Mexican firms. Our results indicate that China’s rise in global trade did not affect by much Mexico’s rate of innovation, which contrasts with the substantial gains that others have found in the case of bilateral iberalizations. At the same time, there is a striking heterogeneity in the responses across firms for different productivities, with productive firms innovating more and less productive firms innovating less, which leads to positive selection in that initial differences in firm performance are sharpened by the advent of new competition. We discuss the implications of these findings for theories of trade and innovation. Y1 - 2011 UR - https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/55d4/4ed62dbefe54fd318ce1b4035d9dbff45ddc.pdf ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Iacovone, Leonardo A1 - Keller, Wolfgang A1 - Rauch, Ferdinand T1 - Innovation When The Market Is Shrinking: Firm-level Responses To Competition From China N2 - How does trade liberalization that raises a country’s import competition affect the innovative activity of its firms? We exploit the strong growth of Chinese exports resulting from China’s entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001 as a competitive shock to, specifically, Mexican manufacturing firms. Innovation is captured through information on the adoption of specific production techniques such as just in time inventory methods, quality control, and job rotation. Our results indicate that China’s rise in global trade did not affect by much Mexico’s rate of innovation, which contrasts with the substantial gains that others have found in the case of bilateral liberalization. At the same time, there is a striking heterogeneity in the responses across firms: productive firms innovate more while less productive firms innovate less. This leads to positive selection in that initial differences in firm performance are sharpened by the advent of new competition. We discuss the implications of these findings for theories of trade and innovation. Y1 - 2010 ER -