Network Intermediation in International Trade: Theory and Evidence

国际贸易中的网络中介：理论与证据

• 批准号: 0001832
• 负责人: James Rauch
• 金额: $ 7.52万
• 依托单位: National Bureau of Economic Research Inc
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2000
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2000-07-15 至 2004-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0001832&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Network; Intermediation; International; Trade; Theory

The principal investigator's prior NSF-supported research has used disaggregated trade data to identify and quantify the need for travel and the usefulness of business and social networks in overcoming informational barriers to international trade. The PI has also developed theoretical models of the consequences of the existence of informational barriers for the functioning of the world economy. This research has raised (at least) three questions. First, can more direct, microeconomic evidence be found for the relatively greater importance of foreign travel, and of private than publicly available information, in the search for foreign buyers or sellers of differentiated than homogeneous products? Second, can any direct evidence be found on if and how new information technology is affecting the search for foreign buyers or sellers? Third, and most important, does the apparent importance of informational barriers to trade and the usefulness of transnational networks in overcoming them have any implications for policy? A survey of intermediaries such as export management companies, export trading companies, importers, and buying agents, guided by a theory of "network intermediation," could help to answer all these questions. The PI will develop such a theory and perform a pilot survey that will determine the feasibility of a full-scale survey. More specifically, the trade-creating impacts of immigrants, foreign direct investment by business groups, and long-settled ethnic minorities that maintain co-ethnic business societies (such as the Overseas Chinese) found by various researchers suggest that existing intermediaries are inadequate means of connecting buyers or sellers to foreign opportunities. The apparent importance of belonging to these transnational business and social networks does not prove that intermediation is undersupplied, however, because the costs of establishing each of these transnational networks were sunk for purposes other than creating trade. It could be that the costs of setting up new intermediaries would outweigh the benefits of the additional trade they would create. A preliminary theoretical model suggests that market failure may indeed exist in provision of "network intermediation." Network intermediaries are agents who, in effect, sell access to their networks, which consist of firms of whose capabilities and preferences they have the "deep knowledge" necessary to match them to appropriate buyers or sellers of differentiated products. It is hypothesized that such agents accumulated their deep knowledge of the firms in their networks by having worked with them in a non-intermediary capacity before entering careers as intermediaries when this became more profitable. This process is unlikely to supply intermediaries whose networks span many product lines, however, which are valuable if for example clients want to buy many components that need to be matched to each other. Moreover, investment in network diversification may fall short of the socially optimal level because the deep knowledge intermediaries need of the members of their networks in order to find the best matches for their clients. The quality of their service is inherently non-contractible, leaving them vulnerable to the hold-up problem given the specificity of each match. One of the policy recommendations of the model (established in a general equilibrium framework with endogenous supply of intermediation) is thus a subsidy to large, diversified intermediaries in particular. Indeed a number of countries (including the United States) have adopted policies to encourage the establishment of such intermediaries. The pilot survey will be designed to test a number of hypotheses drawn from this model.

首席研究员之前由国家科学基金会支持的研究使用分类贸易数据来识别和量化旅行需求以及商业和社交网络在克服国际贸易信息壁垒方面的有用性。 PI 还开发了关于信息障碍的存在对世界经济运行造成的后果的理论模型。 这项研究（至少）提出了三个问题。 首先，在寻找差异化产品而非同质产品的外国买家或卖家时，能否找到更直接的微观经济证据来证明出国旅行以及私人信息比公开信息的重要性相对更大？ 其次，能否找到任何直接证据来证明新信息技术是否以及如何影响对外国买家或卖家的寻找？ 第三，也是最重要的一点，贸易信息壁垒的明显重要性以及跨国网络在克服这些壁垒方面的作用是否对政策有任何影响？ 在“网络中介”理论的指导下，对出口管理公司、出口贸易公司、进口商和采购代理商等中介机构进行调查，可能有助于回答所有这些问题。 项目负责人将开发这样的理论并进行试点调查，以确定全面调查的可行性。更具体地说，各种研究人员发现，移民、商业团体的外国直接投资以及维持同族商业社会的长期定居的少数民族（例如华侨）对贸易创造的影响表明，现有的中介机构不足以将买家或卖家与外国机会联系起来。 然而，属于这些跨国商业和社交网络的明显重要性并不能证明中介服务不足，因为建立这些跨国网络的成本都是为了创造贸易以外的目的而沉没的。设立新中介机构的成本可能会超过它们所创造的额外贸易的收益。 初步的理论模型表明，“网络中介”的提供确实可能存在市场失灵。 网络中介机构实际上是出售网络访问权的代理人，网络中介机构由一些公司组成，他们对这些公司的能力和偏好拥有“深入的了解”，可以将这些公司与差异化产品的适当买家或卖家相匹配。 据推测，这些代理人通过以非中介身份与公司合作，积累了对网络中公司的深入了解，然后进入中介职业，因为中介变得更有利可图。 这个过程不太可能为那些网络跨越许多产品线的中间商提供服务，但是，如果客户想要购买许多需要彼此匹配的组件，那么这些中间商就很有价值。 此外，对网络多元化的投资可能达不到社会最佳水平，因为中介机构需要其网络成员的深入知识才能为其客户找到最佳匹配。他们的服务质量本质上是不可收缩的，考虑到每场比赛的特殊性，他们很容易受到拖延问题的影响。 因此，该模型（建立在具有内生中介供给的一般均衡框架内）的政策建议之一是特别对大型多元化中介机构进行补贴。事实上，许多国家（包括美国）已采取政策鼓励建立此类中介机构。试点调查旨在测试根据该模型得出的一些假设。