Events

Economics Seminar

Author:

• Miaojie Yu
  Peking University

• Larry D Qiu
  University of Hong Kong

This paper provides a theoretical and empirical analysis of the effects of tariff¤ cuts on firms’ export product scope. The theoretical model explicitly incorporates cost of management, in addition to the commonly used production cost. Firms are heterogeneous in terms of managerial efficiency but homogenous in terms of production productivity. The analysis predicts that the home country’s tariff cut reduces all home firms’ export product scope, whereas in response to the foreign country’s tariff cut, a home firm’s export product scope expands (shrinks) if the firm’s management cost is low (high). These predictions are supported by our empirical analysis based on data on Chinese firms from 2000 to 2006.