Working Paper: NBER ID: w11404
Authors: Andrew B. Bernard; J. Bradford Jensen; Peter K. Schott
Abstract: This paper provides an integrated view of globally engaged U.S. firms by exploring a newly developed dataset that links U.S. international trade transactions to longitudinal data on U.S. enterprises. These data permit examination of a number of new dimensions of firm activity, including how many products firms trade, how many countries firms trade with, the characteristics of those countries, the concentration of trade across firms, whether firms transact at arms length or with related parties, and whether firms import as well as export. Firms that trade goods play an important role in the U.S., employing more than a third of the U.S. workforce. We find that the most globally engaged U.S. firms, i.e. those that both export to and import from related parties, dominate U.S. trade flows and employment at trading firms. We also find that firms that begin trading between 1993 and 2000 experience especially rapid employment growth and are a major force in overall job creation.
Keywords: No keywords provided
JEL Codes: F10; F16; F23; J21
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Firms that engage in international trade (F10) | higher employment growth (J68) |
| most globally engaged firms (MGE) (F23) | significant share of employment (J68) |
| global engagement (F01) | higher growth rates in exports and imports per worker (O49) |
| trading status (F19) | employment growth rates differ significantly (J69) |
| trading status (F19) | higher survival rates of trading firms (L25) |
| firm size (L25) | trade volume (F10) |