NBER Publications by Zhiyuan Li

We use data on Chinese manufacturing firms to study the connection between individual firm imports and firm export outcomes. Since our panel covers the years 2002 to 2006, we can use changes in import tariffs associated with China’s WTO entry as instruments. Our regression results show that firms that expanded their intermediate input imports expanded the volume of their exports and increased their export scope, though the magnitude of the effects differed by import source, firm organizational form, and industry R&D intensity. On these dimensions, we find that imported intermediate inputs from OECD rather than non-OECD countries generated larger firm export improvements, that private Chinese firms derived larger benefits from imported inputs than did foreign invested firms, and that imp...

This paper examines why credit constraints for domestic and exporting firms arise in a setting where banks do not observe firms' productivities. To maintain incentive-compatibility, banks lend below the amount needed for first-best production. The longer time needed for export shipments induces a tighter credit constraint on exporters than on purely domestic firms, even in the exporters' home market. Greater risk faced by exporters also affects the credit extended by banks. Extra fixed costs reduce exports on the extensive margin, but can be offset by collateral held by exporting firms. The empirical application to Chinese firms strongly supports these theoretical results, and we find a sizable impact of the financial crisis in reducing exports.