論文

本稿では、経済産業研究所における企業・産業生産性研究会において実施した、ミクロ・データによる日本企業の生産性分析に関する研究成果を、企業の参入・退出と企業のグローバル化という2つの論点を中心に紹介する。企業の参入・退出に関する分析の多くは、マクロ、産業レベルの生産性変動を要因分解し、個々の企業・事業所の生産性変動と、参入・退出、および既存企業・事業所のシェア変動のうち、どの要因がマクロ、産業レベルの生産性変動に大きなインパクトをもたらしたかを調べるものである。業種によって結果は異なるもの、製造業では内部効果（既存企業の生産性上昇効果）の寄与が大きいことや、非製造業では2000年代に入って再配分効果（生産性の高い企業のシェア拡大効果）や純参入効果（生産性の高い企業の参入、および生産性の低い企業の退出による効果）が生産性の改善に寄与している業種がみられることが指摘できる。 グローバル化については、個々の事業所・企業の生産性変化、および生産性格差に注目した分析が行われており、生産性の低迷や製造業雇用の減少という面で、企業活動のグローバル化自体がその原因となったとはいえない、という結論を得ている。生産性については、グローバルな活動を行っている企業は、もともと生産性が高いだけでなく、ある条件のもとでは学習効果を通じて生産性を向上させており、グローバル化が競争を通じて産業全体の生産性向上に結び付いていないことが問題といえそうである。 こうした、これまでの研究成果を踏まえ、今後、必要とされる研究課題や、研究課題の分析にあたって必要とされるインフラ整備についても議論する。

Welfare gains achieved through international trade are a cornerstone of the literature on international economics. However, the data and research methods needed to empirically assess these welfare gains have only recently become available. Building on recently developed methodologies for estimating the elasticity of substitution and computing welfare gains from trade, we estimate Japan's welfare gains from liberalizing trade in the manufacturing sector. To do so, we estimate the elasticities of substitution using Japanese customs data at Harmonized System (HS) 9-digit product codes. The analysis shows that Japan's welfare gains from trade liberalization occurred especially from the end of the 1990s onward, and reached 16 percent vis-à-vis the autarky situation.

This study examines how the product mixes of Japanese manufacturing plants have been impacted by the rise of China imports over the period 1997–2014. It focuses on the way plants are embedded in their local environment mitigates this causal relationship. We find evidence that China import competition induced both product downsizing and product exit within Japanese manufacturing plants. Moreover, we find that those negative effects differ across plants according to various plant characteristics including the spatial organization of their parent firm, and the degree of their exposure to external agglomeration economies.

A recent debate on globalization addresses the importance of skills for firms’ performance in developing countries. Employing microdata from Indonesian manufacturing, we examine the externality effects of inward foreign direct investment (FDI) on labor demand by skill in local firms and identify the relative contribution of each effect to their skill structure. The results show that local firms replace unskilled workers with skilled ones to enable transactions with foreign firms in downstream industries. However, severe labor market competition for skilled workers with foreign firms hinders them from upgrading the skill structure. Moreover, severe product market competition decreases demand for unskilled workers in local firms. Thus, an adequate supply of skilled workers is crucial for the better performance of local firms. The results also highlight the necessity of policies to mitigate the negative impact of inward FDI on unskilled employment in the host economy.

This study investigates whether the agglomeration of multinational enterprises (MNEs) contributes to local firms' quality upgrading in developing countries. Product quality is crucial for firm performance in global markets; recent research highlights its importance even for nonexporting firms, as they are indirectly involved in global competition through production networks. Using firm-product-level data from the Indonesian manufacturing census, we find that the agglomeration of MNEs in downstream industries enhances the product quality of nonexporting firms, particularly those that produce intermediate goods. Thus, attracting MNEs is an effective strategy for local firms and economies to enhance their value added within production networks.

This study empirically investigates the effect of import competition on within-firm employment reorganisation using a Japanese firm-level dataset covering the period of 1997–2014. Moreover, this study examines whether the import competition against low-income countries leads to a shift from a manufacturing activity to non-manufacturing activity, such as headquarters’ services, wholesale, retail or R&D. Furthermore, this study explored the heterogeneity of the impacts of import competition according to firm size. Findings reveal that competition from Chinese imports induces manufacturing firms to increase the share of service workers, particularly workers that engage in wholesale, retail and other service activities.

This paper revisits how vertical linkages between overseas affiliates and their parents are related to intrafirm trade by shedding light on variations in contractibility across sectors in the case of Japanese multinational enterprises based on affiliate-level data. We confirm that intrafirm trade is observed only in a limited fraction of affiliates. To include a large number of affiliates with zero intrafirm trade into our regressions, we estimate our model by Poisson Pseudo Maximum Likelihood. We find that Japanese multinational affiliates tend to export relatively more to their parents in vertically linked sectors especially if they trade goods with low contractibility. This relationship is evident for affiliates located in developing countries. This result indicates that input–output linkage is a significant determinant of intrafirm trade when the trade is affected by contractual frictions. We also confirm the robustness of the results regardless of the definition of contractibility indices by previous studies.

This study is the first to comprehensively investigate international trade at the firm-level using Japan's customs data for the 2014–2020 period. We first decompose international trade into the intensive and extensive margins and show that the intensive margin accounts for around 30% and 40% of the variation in partner country-specific exports and imports, respectively. We next find a substantial concentration of trading firms: in 2017, the top 10% of exporters accounted for 96.6% of all exports, while the top 10% of importers were responsible for 94.6% of all imports. Finally, we match the customs data with other firm-level datasets and estimate the performance premia of exporting firms. Our findings indicate that exporting manufacturing firms outperform non-exporting manufacturing firms in all aspects we consider: sales, value added, the number of employees, the capital-labor ratio, productivity, and wages. Interestingly, the exporter premia of manufacturing firms for value added, labor productivity, and total factor productivity decreased between 2014 and 2016 and then increased until 2019, whereas the exporter premium for the average wage steadily increased.

This study proposes an approach for quantifying two kinds of costs related to the utilisation of regional trade agreements (RTAs). The first, called the “procurement adjustment cost,” represents the cost involved in meeting the rules of origin by adjusting procurement sources. The second is the additional fixed cost required to utilise RTAs, including document preparation costs for the certificates of origin. Applying our approach to Thailand's imports from China, our estimates suggest that procurement adjustment costs at the median are equivalent to 4% of the per-unit production cost. RTA utilisation also requires an additional 27% in fixed costs. In addition, we simulate how much a reduction in these costs would enhance RTA utilisation.

The spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has significantly reduced tourism demands worldwide. Employing weekly data on tourist flows between Japanese prefectures, we examine the cost-effectiveness of domestic travel subsidies. Our results provide two implications for the literature. First, we identify the underlying mechanism of tourist flows during the pandemic. In contrast to infectious diseases that have only local effects, the COVID-19 pandemic has decreased tourism demand not only to, but also from, severely affected regions, deteriorating tourism businesses even in areas not severely affected by the disease. Second, we confirm the effectiveness of a price-discount strategy in mitigating economic damage to the accommodation sector caused by the pandemic.

© 2019 Western Economic Association International We present a simple framework that allows us to examine the cross-country exporter productivity gap without accessing confidential firm-level data. This gap depends on the three readily available statistics: the productivity gap between two countries; the export participation rates; and export premia. This gap holds irrespective of the distribution underlying firm productivity and irrespective of the presence of fixed costs. Under specific conditions, allocative efficiency may affect the exporter productivity gap. The empirical analysis globally validates this exercise. (JEL F1, D24).

© 2018 This study investigates the research and development (R&D) and patenting activities of foreign firms in China. Utilizing a panel dataset of Japanese affiliates during the period 2001–2007, we first examine the determinants of R&D activity and find that local market-oriented firms place more emphasis on R&D, whereas process export-oriented firms are less likely to conduct R&D. Affiliates within a large business group that has more affiliates have a higher propensity to undertake R&D. Using only firms with positive R&D expenditures, we next estimate the patent production function. Results indicate that the patent elasticity of R&D for Japanese affiliates is high, suggesting that they are more productive on patent production than other firms. Moreover, local market-oriented firms do need more patents to protect their products, whereas scientific firms demonstrate a lower willingness to register patents in China.