Dan Liu (Shanghai U. of Finance and Economics) at the RITM Economics Seminar

The next RITM Economics Seminar will take place on Monday 28 january, in Gaudemet (Jean Monnet – 54 boulevard Desgranges – 92330 Sceaux) from 12:00 to 13:00. Dan Liu (Shanghai U. of Finance and Economics) will present “Highways and Firms’ Exports: Evidence from China” (co-writting with Liugang Sheng and Miaojie Yu).

Abstract: This paper investigates the impact of highway networks on firms’ exports by constructing
a firm-level measure of highway access using GIS information on firm locations and highway
routes. The analysis finds that improvement in highway access significantly promotes firms’
exports, after controlling for firm characteristics in addition to unobservable city and industry
time-varying factors. Highway access also helps firms to expand the scope of their exports and
imports. More interestingly, the positive effects of highway access on exports are stronger for
less productive firms. With greater highway access, less productive firms lower their markup,
but more productive firms increase their markup.