Intra-good trade in Germany: A first look at the evidence
Research output: Working paper › Working papers
Authors
This paper contributes to the literature by using newly released comprehensive transaction level data on all exports and imports to document facts about the amount of intra-good trade – the simultaneous export and import of identical goods by one firm - in Germany. Combined data for trade transactions and for characteristics of a representative large sample of trading
firms are then used to report differences between firms that export and import different goods only (inter-good traders) and firms that engage in the simultaneous export and import of identical goods (intra-good traders
). We find that the share of intra-good trade in total trade was some 17 percent in Germany in 2012. Intra-good trade matters. This share differs widely between broadly defined groups of goods and between industries. Controlling for detailed industry affiliation intra-good traders differ sign
ificantly from inter-good traders – they are larger, more human capital intensive, more productive, have a higher R&D intensity, and are more profitable. The data, however, are not rich enough to reveal the direction of causality between intra-good trade and firm performance and to investigate empirically the reasons why some firms engage in intra-good trade.
Original language | English |
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Place of Publication | Lüneburg |
Publisher | Leuphana Universität Lüneburg |
Number of pages | 22 |
Publication status | Published - 08.2016 |
- Economics - intra-product trade, two-way trade, imports, exports, Germany