Indian Buyers in Global Markets: Quality, Prices, and Productivity

45 Pages Posted: 16 Apr 2021

See all articles by Michael A. Anderson

Michael A. Anderson

Washington and Lee University - Department of Economics

Martin H Davies

Washington and Lee University

J.E. Signoret

The World Bank

S.L.S. Smith

Hope College

Date Written: April 15, 2021

Abstract

We examine import prices paid by direct-sourcing Indian manufacturing firms in the early 2000s using a unique data set that matches firm characteristics with product and source-country trade data, offering a theoretical and empirical extension of Halpern and Koren (2007). We find that import prices are positively associated with firm productivity, distance from source-country, and source-country GDP per capita, and negatively associated with source-country remoteness, an effect we attribute to the higher scope for quality differentiation in less remote locations. Further, we find that source-country characteristics matter more, and cost factors less, for differentiated than for non-differentiated goods.

Keywords: Importers, Firm-level data, Pricing, Input quality, productivity, India

JEL Classification: F1, F10, F12, F14

Suggested Citation

Anderson, Michael A. and Davies, Martin H and Signoret, J.E. and Smith, S.L.S., Indian Buyers in Global Markets: Quality, Prices, and Productivity (April 15, 2021). CAMA Working Paper No. 42/2021, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3826834 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3826834

Michael A. Anderson

Washington and Lee University - Department of Economics ( email )

Lexington, VA 24450
United States

Martin H Davies (Contact Author)

Washington and Lee University ( email )

204 W Washington St
Lexington, VA 24450
United States

J.E. Signoret

The World Bank ( email )

1818 H Street, NW
Washington, DC 20433
United States

S.L.S. Smith

Hope College ( email )

United States

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
10
Abstract Views
158
PlumX Metrics