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The Review of Economics and Statistics Vol. 97 No. 3 2015

Firm Exports and Multinational Activity Under Credit Constraints

Kalina Manova1; Shang‐Jin Wei2,3; Zhiwei Zhang4

1 Stanford University · 2 Center for Economic and Policy Research · 3 Columbia University · 4 Nomura Holdings (Japan)

Abstract

We provide firm-level evidence that credit constraints restrict international trade and affect the pattern of multinational activity. We show that foreign affiliates and joint ventures in China have better export performance than private domestic firms in financially more vulnerable sectors. These results are stronger for destinations with higher trade costs and not driven by firm size or other sector characteristics. Our findings are consistent with multinational subsidiaries being less liquidity constrained because they can access foreign capital markets or funding from their parent company. They further suggest that FDI can alleviate the impact of domestic financial market imperfections on trade.

DOI
10.1162/rest_a_00480
Volume
97
Issue
3
Pages
574-588
Language
en
Sources
openalex crossref

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