This paper unveils a systematic pattern in the People's Republic of China's (PRC) processing trade. In a cross-section of the PRC's provinces, the average distance traveled by processing imports (import distance) is negatively correlated with the average distance traveled by processing exports...

In the last two decades, the electronics industry has evolved from a vertically integrated industry to a vertically segmented one. This transformation has often been attributed to the modularization of electronic products. In this paper, we argue that the degree of modularity is an active choice...

In this discussion report, we dispel the widely held misconception that China's economy is excessively export-dependent and therefore particularly vulnerable to a drop in export demand. In the past two decades, China's dramatic exports rise has largely been driven by the fact that many foreign...

China's emergence as a key player in the global electronics industry has ignited concerns among its East Asian neighbors. Upper and middle-income economies fear that China's rise is hollowing out their electronics industrial base. Lower-income economies worry that they cannot compete with...

In recent decades, complex manufacturing sectors such as electronics have transformed from an industry dominated by vertically integrated firms that source locally to an industry dominated by horizontally specialized firms that source globally. To account for this, we build an two-country...

In this paper, we develop a method to quantify the importance of regulation and market structure on the success of trade liberalization. For this purpose, we incorporate a single imperfectly competitive service sector that can take on various market structures into a standard computational...

In this paper, we make use of a unique world electronics production data set to assess China's upgrading trajectory in the global electronics industry. Contrary to existing studies, we find no evidence that China's electronics production activities are more sophisticated than one would expect...

In many globalized industries, vertical outsourcing seems to co-evolve with horizontal integration in the component sector. In order to account for this phenomenon, I incorporate modularity into an industry-equilibrium model with monopolistic competition and perfect contracts that allows the...

In this paper we argue that export data are an inadequate tool to measure a country's international competitiveness when external trade is dominated by export-processing trade. Export data do not necessarily reflect the value produced in an exporting country, but rather capture the gross value...