Product Standards and Margins of Trade: Firm Level Evidence

Abstract

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. We address the trade effect of restrictive product standards on the margins of trade, by matching a detailed panel of French firm exports with a new database compiling the list of Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary regulatory measures that have been raised as a concern in dedicated committees of the WTO. By using specific trade concerns to capture the degree of restrictiveness of product standards we focus only on standards that are perceived as a barrier to trade. We analyse their effects on three trade related aspects: (i) probability to export and to exit the export market (firm-product extensive margins), (ii) value exported (firm-product intensive margin) and (iii) export prices. We find that SPS concerns discourage the presence of French exporters in SPS-imposing foreign markets. We also find a negative effect of SPS imposition on the intensive margins of trade. Finally, the former negative effects of SPS are attenuated for big firms. Terms of use: Documents inJEL-Code: F120, F150.

International Agreements on Product Standards Under Consumption Externalities: National Treatment Versus Mutual Recognition

“…While I have suppressed the details, raising the standards in either country increases local prices and reduces the intensive margin of trade. This is consistent with the empirical findings in Fontagné et al (2015).…”

Impact of nontariff measures on firms in Tunisia

“…NTMs have a trade-fostering effect on non-European exporters (column 2) and on all sizes of importing firms (columns 3 and 4). While the literature refers to a differentiating effect of NTMs on exporters depending on their size (Fontagné et al, 2015), our results suggest a homogeneous effect across size for importing firms. We observe that the effects of NTMs on imports from non-EU countries are less than the global sample.…”

“…The most recent empirical literature provides new insights on the trade effects of NTMs using firm-level data. Using French firm-level data, Fontagné, Orefice, Piermartini, and Rocha (2015) find that both extensive (the number of firms exporting) and intensive margins of trade (values of firms' exports) are negatively affected when SPS measures are adopted. Moreover, SPS measures increase the probability of firms exiting the market altogether.…”

How Do Technical Barriers to Trade Affect Exports? <br/>Evidence from Egyptian Firm-Level Data

“…To assess the relative importance of each concern, an index can be constructed accounting for both the number of HS4 products under the STC, and the number of years during which the STC was considered unresolved 14 (Fontagné et al 2013). The index in Table 5 indicates that the concern N. 88 was the most important one because it covers all products in the chemical industry (178) and is an ongoing (unresolved) concern since 2003.…”