The Margins of Global Sourcing: Theory and Evidence from US Firms
American Economic Review
vol. 107,
no. 9, September 2017
(pp. 2514-64)
Abstract
We develop a quantifiable multi-country sourcing model in which firms self-select into importing based on their productivity and country-specific variables. In contrast to canonical export models where firm profits are additively separable across destination markets, global sourcing decisions naturally interact through the firm's cost function. We show that, under an empirically relevant condition, selection into importing exhibits complementarities across source markets. We exploit these complementarities to solve the firm's problem and estimate the model. Comparing counterfactual predictions to reduced-form evidence highlights the importance of interdependencies in firms' sourcing decisions across markets, which generate heterogeneous domestic sourcing responses to trade shocks.Citation
Antràs, Pol, Teresa C. Fort, and Felix Tintelnot. 2017. "The Margins of Global Sourcing: Theory and Evidence from US Firms." American Economic Review, 107 (9): 2514-64. DOI: 10.1257/aer.20141685Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D24 Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
- F14 Empirical Studies of Trade
- F23 Multinational Firms; International Business
- L14 Transactional Relationships; Contracts and Reputation; Networks
- L21 Business Objectives of the Firm