A Firm-Level Analysis of Productivity and the Export Market in Taiwan
Abstract
Over the past four decades Taiwan has experienced tremendous economic growth. Much of the debate surrounding Taiwan's success has focused on its trade policies and the relationship between export-orientation and high output growth. It has been shown in previous studies that export-oriented firms tend on average to be larger and have higher output than domestic-oriented firms. However, what is the reason behind the output differences between exporters and non-exporters? Is it because exporters are larger and employ more inputs, or given equal inputs are exporters more productive than domestic-oriented firms? This paper develops a model to distinguish the roles of resource-level differences from productivity differences in explaining output differences between exporters and non-exporters. Our results indicate that the larger size of exporters relative to non-exporters explains the bulk of the difference in output between the two groups of producers. Nevertheless, we found that there are significant differences in productivity levels between exporters and non-exporters in eight of the twelve products examined. The contribution of these differences to the output differences between the producer groups varies from 3-18%. Furthermore, the magnitude of the contribution is product specific.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 18, 2000
- Accession Number
- ADA377196
Entities
People
- Adam W. Kerkman
Organizations
- Air Force Institute of Technology