Firm Exports and Multinational Activity Under Credit Constraints

Working Paper No. 16905 This paper provides firm-level evidence that credit constraints restrict international trade flows and affect the sectoral pattern of multinational activity. Using detailed customs data from China, we show that foreign affiliates and joint ventures have better export performa...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:NBER Working Paper Series 2011-03, p.16905
Main Authors: Manova, Kalina, Shang-Jin, Wei, Zhang, Zhiwei
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Capital markets
Costs
Economic theory
Exports
Financial institutions
Financial performance
Foreign investment
International trade
Joint ventures
Liquidity
Market entry
Multinational corporations
Securities markets
Studies
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Summary:Working Paper No. 16905 This paper provides firm-level evidence that credit constraints restrict international trade flows and affect the sectoral pattern of multinational activity. Using detailed customs data from China, we show that foreign affiliates and joint ventures 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 variation in firm size or by other sector determinants of FDI. Our findings are consistent with multinational subsidiaries being less liquidity constrained because they can tap additional funding from their parent company and/or access foreign capital markets. More broadly, they suggest that FDI can alleviate the impact of domestic financial market imperfections on aggregate growth, trade and private sector development.
ISSN:0898-2937
DOI:10.3386/w16905