Seminar（Dept. of Trade Economics）

Title: Labor Frictions, Market Demand and Firm Exports: The Experience of Chinese Firms

Speaker: Guanliang HU (City University of Hong Kong)

Time: 14:00-15:30pm, December 7th, 2023 (Thursday)

Venue: Room 1008, Mingde Business Building

Language: English

ABSTRACT:

This paper studies the determinants of firms' exporting status. The economic framework stresses the dynamic decision by both state and privately controlled entities to export in a model with labor adjustment costs, stochastic market demands, and trade frictions. The model is estimated using data from both types of enterprises in China to gain insights into the factors that play a role in determining export status. The experiments conducted based on the estimated model reveal that within this complex environment, a simple decision rule whereby export status depends only on current productivity does not hold. Additionally, the analysis demonstrates that trade frictions are insufficient to explain the observed data patterns, which include substitution between concurrent domestic and foreign sales, and the skewed distribution of export shares. The analysis highlights the economic significance of labor adjustment costs as well as demand shocks in shaping the dynamics of both employment and export status.

SHORT BIOGRAPHY:

Guanliang HU is currently serving as an Assistant Professor at the City University of Hong Kong. He obtained his PhD from Penn State University in 2022, specializing in the fields of macroeconomics and international trade. His current research interests focus on uncertainty shocks, trade dynamics, and aspects of the Chinese economy.