Unilateral trade reform, Market Access and Foreign Competition: the Patterns of Multi-Product Exporters

摘要: Recent findings in international trade using detailed firm level surveys emphasize the microeconomic effects of liberalization episodes. A unilateral reform has two opposite on firms’ export patterns: (i) expansion opportunities for foreign firms exporting to that destination and (ii) intensification competition liberalized market. The main contribution this paper is investigate trade-off between market access growth tougher competitive pressures Using firm-product-destination data French (1999-2005), we explore how margins exports react Asian countries, with particular attention given China. We exploit exogenous variation Chinese import tariff cuts relative changes other countries. Our suggest expanded range their exported products volume China destinations after liberalization. These results are robust when explicitly account third countries Quantitatively, a 7 percent declined average during period 1999-2005, almost 6 log points firm’s product scope 14 sales.