Input variety, output variety, and economic development in East Asia

本研究考察了三国产业和企业层面的贸易结构与企业生产率之间的关系。特别是我们测试了进口中间产品对企业绩效的影响。在所有三个东南亚国家（印度尼西亚、马来西亚和泰国），外国工厂的生产率都高于当地工厂。在泰国和马来西亚，出口和进口的工厂比不出口的工厂有更高的劳动生产率。在印度尼西亚，人们发现进口和高生产率之间存在着很强的相关性。总之，在这三个国家，进口中间产品对提高生产率发挥了重要作用。在泰国，贸易壁垒与工厂的生产力呈负相关。这表明贸易自由化对经济增长的重要性。在马来西亚，研发支出和IT投资与高生产率正相关。正如我们所讨论的，外国公司在泰国制造业，特别是机械行业获得了很大的市场份额。本研究的重点之一是国际贸易对当地企业生产率的影响。在控制了国外因素后，我们发现强有力的证据表明，竞争，进口投入，进口机械在行业层面和当地企业的参与国际贸易是至关重要的企业的生产率。

In this study we investigated the relationship between trade structures at industry and firm level and firm's productivity for three countries. Especially we tested the impact of imported intermediate on firm's performance.In all three South-East Asian countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand), productivity of foreign plants is higher than that of local plants. In Thailand and Malaysia, plants that export as well as import have higher labor productivity than the plants that don't. In Indonesia, it is found that there is a strong correlation between import and high productivity. In sum, in all three countries, imported intermediated goods play an important role for the productivity 'gains. In Thailand, trade barriers are negatively correlated with plant's productivity. This indicates the importance of trade liberalization for economic growth. In Malaysia, as expected R&D expenditure and IT investment are positively correlated with high productivity.As we discussed, foreign firms gain a large market share in Thailand manufacturing sector, especially, machinery industries. One of our main focuses of this study was on the effects of international trade on local firm's productivity. After controlling for the foreign factor, we found strong evidence that competition, imported inputs, and imported machinery at industry level and local firm's engagement in international trade are crucially important for firm's productivity.