Warren B. Bailey , Xiaping Cao , Zhenyi Yang , Sili Zhou
{"title":"Who leads and who follows? The cross-border peer effect in investment by Chinese and US firms","authors":"Warren B. Bailey , Xiaping Cao , Zhenyi Yang , Sili Zhou","doi":"10.1016/j.jinteco.2023.103875","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p><span>We document a cross-border peer effect in corporate investment across two key economies, China and the US. Results show that investment by individual Chinese firms lags US peers without feedback in the other direction. This association is stronger for Chinese firms in manufacturing, with innovative US peers, once China joined </span>WTO, or targeted by anti-dumping investigations or measures as reported to the WTO. These findings are robust to diagnostic tests and alternative specifications. Furthermore, Chinese firms respond to domestic competition by learning from US peers. Our findings illustrate how peer competition induced by foreign trade and international institutions affects corporate decision-making in China’s rapidly-growing economy.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":16276,"journal":{"name":"Journal of International Economics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.8000,"publicationDate":"2024-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of International Economics","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022199623001617","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ECONOMICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
We document a cross-border peer effect in corporate investment across two key economies, China and the US. Results show that investment by individual Chinese firms lags US peers without feedback in the other direction. This association is stronger for Chinese firms in manufacturing, with innovative US peers, once China joined WTO, or targeted by anti-dumping investigations or measures as reported to the WTO. These findings are robust to diagnostic tests and alternative specifications. Furthermore, Chinese firms respond to domestic competition by learning from US peers. Our findings illustrate how peer competition induced by foreign trade and international institutions affects corporate decision-making in China’s rapidly-growing economy.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of International Economics is intended to serve as the primary outlet for theoretical and empirical research in all areas of international economics. These include, but are not limited to the following: trade patterns, commercial policy; international institutions; exchange rates; open economy macroeconomics; international finance; international factor mobility. The Journal especially encourages the submission of articles which are empirical in nature, or deal with issues of open economy macroeconomics and international finance. Theoretical work submitted to the Journal should be original in its motivation or modelling structure. Empirical analysis should be based on a theoretical framework, and should be capable of replication.