Working Paper: NBER ID: w25249
Authors: James J. Fetzer; Tina Highfill; Kassu W. Hossiso; Thomas F. Howells III; Erich H. Strassner; Jeffrey A. Young
Abstract: This paper presents experimental trade-in-value added statistics estimated from extended supply-use tables (SUTs) for the United States for 2005 and 2012 that account for firm heterogeneity. We also present preliminary output from a microdata linking project between the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and the U.S. Census Bureau on the U.S. semiconductor and other electronic components manufacturing industry to show how different firm characteristics account for heterogeneity. Our experimental results show that imported content of exports as a share of exports varies notably by firm-type within most industries, and that the imported content of exports is concentrated in a few industries, the largest being petroleum manufacturing. Despite the dominance that U.S. and foreign multinational enterprises (MNEs) have over trade transactions, both MNEs and non-MNEs make significant contributions to the content of U.S. exports. Estimates based on our microdata linking project suggest that production patterns by ownership, firm size class, and export intensity each exhibit firm heterogeneity to some extent. The ownership criterion best identifies heterogeneity in the value added share of production among the three criteria, while firm size class identifies heterogeneity in the export share of production better than the ownership criterion.
Keywords: firm heterogeneity; trade in value added; supply-use tables; multinational enterprises; US exports
JEL Codes: D57; F23
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| firm type (L20) | imported content of exports (F10) |
| multinational enterprises (MNEs) (F23) | content of US exports (F10) |
| non-MNEs (F23) | content of US exports (F10) |
| ownership (H13) | heterogeneity in value-added shares (D46) |
| firm size class (L25) | heterogeneity in export share of production (F12) |