TY  - JOUR
AU  - Feenstra,Robert C.
AU  - Hong,Chang
AU  - Ma,Hong
AU  - Spencer,Barbara J.
TI  - Contractual Versus Non-Contractual Trade: The Role of Institutions in China
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 17728
PY  - 2012
Y2  - January 2012
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w17728
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w17728.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Robert C. Feenstra
Department of Economics
University of California, Davis
One Shields Avenue
Davis, CA  95616
Tel: 530/752-7022
Fax: 530/752-9382
E-Mail: rcfeenstra@ucdavis.edu

Chang Hong
Department of Economics
Clark University 
Worcester, MA 01610
E-Mail: CHong@clarku.edu

Hong Ma
Tsinghua University
Department of Economics
Beijing, China
E-Mail: mahong@sem.tsinghua.edu.cn

Barbara J. Spencer
University of British Columbia
Sauder School of Business
2053 Main Mall
Vancouver, BC  V6T 1Z2
CANADA
Tel: 604/822-8479
Fax: 604/822-8477
E-Mail: barbara.spencer@sauder.ubc.ca
AB  - Recent research has demonstrated the importance of institutional quality at the country level for both the volume of trade and the ability to trade in differentiated goods that rely on contract enforcement. This paper takes advantage of cross-provincial variation in institutional quality in China, and export data that distinguishes between foreign and domestic exporters and processing versus ordinary trade, to show that institutional quality is a significant factor in determining Chinese provincial export patterns. Institutions matter more for processing trade, and more for foreign firms, just as we would expect from a greater reliance on contracts in these cases.
ER  -