From selling goods to selling services: firm responses to trade liberalization

In this paper we focus on a new channel of adaptation to trade liberalization, namely the shift toward increased provision of services in lieu of goods production. We exploit variation in European Union trade policy to show that lower manufacturing tariffs lead firms to shift into services provisio...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Breinlich, Holger, Soderbery, Anson, Wright, Greg C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: American Economic Association 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/49480/
Description
Summary:In this paper we focus on a new channel of adaptation to trade liberalization, namely the shift toward increased provision of services in lieu of goods production. We exploit variation in European Union trade policy to show that lower manufacturing tariffs lead firms to shift into services provision and out of goods production. We also find that a successful transition is associated with higher firm-level R&D stocks.