Manufacturing exports and the impact of business services (original) (raw)
Related papers
2013
This paper investigates the contribution provided by the Business service sector (BS) to the international competitiveness of manufacturing industries that acquire and use intangible intermediate inputs (in particular those provided by two main BS sub-sectors: “Communication and computer related services” and “Other business activities”). The main valued added of this paper consists of having assessed the role played by BS on the export performances of manufacturing sectors integrating – for a selected number of EU countries - different industry level data sources, namely the OECD Input-Output Tables, the OECD Structural Analysis Database and data provided by the Community Innovation Survey. The results of the empirical analysis show that BS do exert a positive impact on the international competitiveness of manufacturing industries even though these effects vary according to the type of intermediate intangible input acquired and type of user sector.
The Role of Services for Manufacturing Firms� Exports
2012
Manufacturing firms increasingly focus on services. This trend is evident in their composition of input, in-house production and seemingly also in total sale. Firms' services intensity may affect their productivity, and thereby competitiveness abroad. Services are also instrumental in connecting to the foreign market and can help firms to differentiate their offers. However, only bits and pieces of the relation between services and manufacturing's exports have been analysed in previous literature. This study contributes by discussing the role of services for the firm, arriving at some conjectures and testing them empirically. Export intensity is regressed on two services parameters, applying a fractional model to a rich panel of firms in Sweden in the period 2001-2007. The microeconometric results suggest that there is an effect of services inputs, while controlling for covariates and firm heterogeneity. Raising the proportion of services in in-house production, on average, yields higher export intensity. Buying-in more services is associated with higher export intensity for firms in selected industries. Overall, the study provides new firm-level evidence of the role of services as inputs in manufacturing.
Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, 2005
This paper investigates how countries become specialised in exporting specific producer services, particularly financial, communication and business services. We find that a country's ability to develop a competitive service economy depends on the structure of its manufacturing sector as some manufacturing industries are more intensive users of these services. Moreover, we find a virtuous cycle as the same service producers
The Role of Services for Firms' Export Intensity
2011
Manufacturing firms are increasingly focusing on services. This trend is evident in their composition of input, in-house production and seemingly also in total sale. Manufacturing firms‟ services intensity is likely to affect productivity and thereby their competitiveness abroad. However, only bits and pieces of the relation between services and manufacturing‟s export performance have been analysed in theoretical and empirical literature. This study contributes by discussing the role of services for the manufacturing firm, arriving at some conjectures and testing them empirically. Export intensity is regressed on two services parameters, applying a fractional Tobit model to a rich panel of firms in Sweden in the period 2001-2007. The microeconometric results indicate that there is an effect of services inputs, while controlling for covariates and firm heterogeneity. Raising the proportion of services in in-house production yields higher export intensity. Furthermore, buying-in more ...
The role of services for manufacturing firm exports
Review of World Economics, 2014
Manufacturing firms increasingly focus on services. This trend is evident in their composition of input, in-house production and seemingly also in total sale. Firms' services intensity may affect their productivity, and thereby competitiveness abroad. Services are also instrumental in connecting to the foreign market and can help firms to differentiate their offers. However, only bits and pieces of the relation between services and manufacturing's exports have been analysed in previous literature. This study contributes by discussing the role of services for the firm, arriving at some conjectures and testing them empirically. Export intensity is regressed on two services parameters, applying a fractional model to a rich panel of firms in Sweden in the period 2001-2007. The microeconometric results suggest that there is an effect of services inputs, while controlling for covariates and firm heterogeneity. Raising the proportion of services in in-house production, on average, yields higher export intensity. Buying-in more services is associated with higher export intensity for firms in selected industries. Overall, the study provides new firm-level evidence of the role of services as inputs in manufacturing.
Business services: a source of comparative advantage
2010
Business services provide essential inputs to production and trade in both goods and services, and a broad and competitive supplier base in such services may be a source of comparative advantage in downstream sectors. This paper explores the role of business services for competitiveness in downstream industries. It starts by analysing the determinants of trade in business services using a gravity approach. Second, trade costs in business services are estimated from gravity residuals. Third, the relationship between trade costs in business services and performance in downstream industries are explored. The performance indicators included are the Grubel-Lloyd index of intra-industry trade, an index of marginal intra-industry trade and weight-to value ratio of exports. The downstream industries analysed are electronics, motor vehicles, chemicals and textiles. The paper finds that contrary to popular perceptions, trade in business services are highly sensitive to distance, but the margi...
SERVICES INPUTS AND EXPORT PERFORMANCE OF MANUFACTURING FIRMS IN TRANSITION ECONOMIES
The objective of current paper is to explore the impact of services inputs on export performance of manufacturing firms in transition economies. The results of the study provide a new understanding of the consequences of trade liberalization in services sector. In particular, positive impact of services sector efficiency on export performance of manufacturers is revealed. Along with services impact, we find that firm specific characteristics such as introduction of new products, investments in research and development, employment of advanced technologies, and employee skills are key drivers of export performance in manufacturing sector in transition economies. Firm's size and foreign investments do matter as well. The results of this study provide information for policymakers and stakeholders that will facilitate elaboration of policy interventions aimed at improvement of export performance of manufacturers in transition economies.
Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, 2005
With respect to the German economy over the 1990s, the paper employs an input-output framework to identify the contribution of economy-wide changes in technology and international trade to sectoral output growth. Distinguishing between a manufacturing core of export-oriented sectors and the rest of manufacturing, it subsequently sets up several scenarios of structural change that is supposed to take place in such a subsector alone. Comparing the resulting output and employment to the base year data, it can thus be singled out how the most important changes within manufacturing impact on, especially, two subsectors of the business-related services. The quantitative analysis establishes the order of magnitude in which the latter have profited from the manufacturing sector, which is considerable. JEL classification: O 14, O 52.
Contemporary Issues in International Economics, 2021
In this chapter, we study services and their unique characteristics. We focus on characteristics of services, such as intangibility, immateriality; invisibility; perishability; temporary existence, sensitivity on time; non storability; inseparability; lack of inventory; sensibility of quality control; high degree of risk or difficulty in experimentation; no return possibility at un-satisfaction; customisation requirements; different distribution channels; and no rivalry. We also analyse the relations between exports, investments in development and innovation activities of Slovene business services sectors in two statistically different periods (2002-2008 and 2010-2016). A two-step approach to examine the firms’ performance in the selected business non-financial services sectors was applied. First, we used Simple Probit model, and in the second step, Simultaneous Probit model was used. The preliminary results suggest that the investment in R&D activities encourages export behaviour a...