Collaborative Research- Penetrating Foreign Markets: A Firm and Product-Level Investigation

摘要项目编号：0351909机构：美国国家自然科学基金会项目：提高人类绩效首席研究员：Kortum， Samuel ssi提案标题：合作研究-渗透国外市场：企业和产品层面的调查快速的技术创新，技术的国际扩散和世界市场的一体化在过去的三十年中改变了全球经济。虽然在总体和部门一级对这些变化进行了调查，但对产生和应对这些变化的个别公司的研究较少。这项研究调查了创新和全球化的过程，整合了企业、产品、部门和国家规模的数据。它开发了一种方法来调查产品创新和进入国外市场。该方法描述了企业如何在被贸易壁垒分隔的国家市场上进行销售竞争。跨空间竞争模型与涉及新产品创新和旧产品淘汰的企业动态模型相关联。该方法应用于1986年以来法国私营制造业企业的广泛行政数据集。这些数据的不同寻常之处在于，它们表明了每家公司每年每种产品向各个国家的出口量。这项研究的目的之一是量化在国外市场销售的成本。所讨论的问题是：在国外市场销售的成本在多大程度上是固定的还是可变的？固定成本在多大程度上是沉没的或经常性的？公司有独立的出口目的地“网络”吗？量化出口成本的一个好处是准确地评估不同形式的市场一体化的好处。例如，一项关于进入一个国家市场的固定成本很高的调查结果表明，小国特别可能从市场一体化中受益。第二个目标是将总贸易流量与企业层面的情况联系起来。出口目的地的变化如何反映在个别公司销售的数量和公司参与出口？这些知识将使我们深入了解全球经济的各种情况是如何反映在各个生产者的表现上的。第三个目标是更好地理解出口在企业生命周期中的作用。产品创新、企业成长和国外市场渗透之间是否存在联系？本研究有助于我们对国际经济中民营企业的认识。新方法还使我们能够整合企业、部门和国家规模的数据集，并增强我们利用越来越多的可用社会、经济和技术指标的能力，从而利用理论模型、先进的统计技术和计算机技术研究基本的全球现象。

ABSTRACTPROPOSAL NUMBER: 0351909INSTITUTION: NBERNSF PROGRAM: ENHANCING HUMAN PERFORMANCEPRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Kortum, Samuel SPROPOSAL TITLE: Collaborative Research - Penetrating Foreign Markets: A Firm and Product-Level Investigation Rapid technological innovation, international diffusion of technology, and integration of world markets have transformed the global economy in the last three decades. While these have been investigated at the aggregate and sectoral levels, individual firms that generate and respond to such changes are less studied. This research investigates the processes of innovation and globalization that integrates data at the scale of firms, products, sectors, and nations. It develops a methodology to investigate product innovation and entry into foreign markets. The methodology characterizes how firms compete in selling across national markets separated by trade barriers. The model of competition across space is linked to a model of firm dynamics involving the innovation of new products and the obsolescence of old ones. This methodology is applied to an extensive administrative dataset of private-sector French manufacturing firms since 1986. These data are unusual in that they indicate, for each firm in each year, the amount exported of each product to individual countries.A goal of the research is to quantify the costs of selling in a foreign market. Questions addressed are: To what extent is the cost of selling in a foreign market fixed or variable? To what extent are fixed costs sunk or recurrent? Do firms have individual "networks" of export destinations? A benefit of quantifying the costs of exporting is to accurately assess the benefits of different forms of market integration. For example, a finding that the fixed cost of entering a national market is substantial suggests that small countries are particularly likely to benefit from market integration. A second goal is to relate aggregate trade flows to what goes on at the firm level. How is the variation in export destination reflected in the quantities that individual firms sell and the participation of firms in exporting? This knowledge will provide insight into how various scenarios for the global economy are reflected in the performance of individual producers. A third goal is a better understanding of the role of exports in the life-cycle of firms. Are there connections between product innovation, firm growth, and penetration of foreign markets?This study contributes to our understanding of the private firms in the international economy. The new methodology also allows us to integrate data sets at the scale of firms, sectors, and nations as well as enhance our ability to exploit the increasing array of available social, economic, and technological indicators to study fundamental global phenomena using theoretical models, advanced statistical techniques, and computer technology.