Working Paper: NBER ID: w16288
Authors: Keith Head; Ran Jing; Deborah L. Swenson
Abstract: Each of the world's largest retailers---Walmart, Carrefour, Tesco, and Metro---entered China after 1995. Their subsequent expansion in China may have influenced Chinese exports through two channels. First, they may have enhanced bilateral exports between the retailers' Chinese operations and destination countries also served by stores in the retailers' networks. Second, Chinese city-level exports to all destinations may have grown if multinational retailer presence enhanced the general export capabilities of local suppliers. Evidence from Chinese city-level retail goods exports supports the capability hypothesis as the expansion of Chinese city exports follows the geographic expansion of the retailers' Chinese stores and global procurement centers.
Keywords: No keywords provided
JEL Codes: F13; F23; F39; O19; O32
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Presence of multinational retailers (F23) | Bilateral trade of Chinese cities to foreign destinations (F10) |
| Increase in presence of global procurement centers (F69) | Increase in city-level retail goods exports (F69) |
| Decrease in distance to global procurement centers (F69) | Increase in city's export capability (F10) |
| Increase in number of retail outlets (L81) | Increase in city's export capability (F10) |