Publication: The Time Cost of Documents to Trade
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Date
2015-06-04
ISSN
0885-3908
Published
2015-06-04
Author(s)
Amin, Mohammad
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Abstract
The article shows that the number of documents required to export and import tend to increase the time cost of shipments. However, the increase in the time cost of increased documentation is much larger for countries that are relatively poor and large in size. One interpretation here is that the relatively rich countries that have more resources and the relatively small countries that rely more on trade invest more in building efficient documentation systems. Our findings suggest caution in interpreting how input-based measures, such as the number of required documents to trade, affect outcome measures.
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Publication The Time Cost of Documents to Trade(2011-12-01)This paper analyzes the relationship between the number of documents required to export and import and the time it takes to complete all procedures to trade. It shows that an increase in the number of documents required for export and import tends to increase the time cost of shipments. However, this relationship is far from simplistic, varying sharply in magnitude across rich versus poor countries and small versus large countries. Specifically, the increase in the time cost of increased documentation is much larger for relatively poor and larger countries. One interpretation of this finding is that richer countries that have more resources and smaller countries that rely more on trade invest more in building efficient documentation systems. Hence, in such countries relative to others, increased documentation adds less to the time cost at the margin. At a broader level, the findings suggest caution in interpreting how input-based measures such as the number of required documents to trade affect the quality of the business environment as far as the associated cost is concerned.Publication Use of Imported Inputs and the Cost of Importing : Evidence from Developing Countries(World Bank Group, Washington, DC, 2014-08)For a representative sample of manufacturing firms in 26 countries, this paper shows that changes in the cost of importing over time are significantly and negatively correlated with changes in the percentage of firms' material inputs that are of foreign origin. Furthermore, the paper shows that there may be a nonlinear relationship between import costs and imports. These findings are important, as recent studies point toward a significant positive effect of imported inputs on productivity and growth. It is hoped that the present paper inspires more work on the determinants of the use of imported inputs, especially in developing countries.Publication Use of Imported Inputs and the Cost of Importing : Evidence from Developing Countries(Taylor and Francis, 2014-08-26)For a representative sample of manufacturing firms in 26 countries, the article shows that changes in the cost of importing over time is significantly and negatively correlated with changes in the percentage of firm’s material inputs that are of foreign origin. Furthermore, we show that there may be a non-linear relationship between import costs and imports. These findings are important as recent studies point towards a significant positive effect of imported inputs on productivity and growth. We hope that the present article inspires more work on the determinants of imported input usage especially in developing countries.Publication Imports of Intermediate Inputs and Country Size(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014-01)The paper analyzes the relationship between country size and the use of imported intermediate inputs by firms in 76 developing countries. Recent evidence indicates that the use of imported inputs can have a large, positive effect on productivity and growth, thus motivating a better understanding of the determinants of foreign inputs. The results confirm that, as is the case with exports, use of imported intermediate inputs is much higher at the extensive and intensive margins in small relative to large countries. The results for imported inputs are comparable in magnitude with those for exports.Publication Exports and Women Workers in Formal Firms(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-01)Theory suggests several ways in which exporting may benefit women’s employment. However, the empirical evidence is mixed and limited, especially for developing countries. This paper uses firm-level survey data for 91 developing countries to estimate the relationship between exporting and the share of women workers at the firm. The analysis pays close attention to endogeneity concerns. First, it proxies a given firms’ exports by the average exports of all other firms in the same country-year-industry cell. Second, it exploits the repeated cross-section nature of the data and analyzes how changes over time in exporting activity are associated with changes in the share of women workers. The strategy is more immune to endogeneity problems than pure cross-section regressions. Third, it tests several mechanism or mediating factors as predicted by the theory through which exporting impacts women’s employment prospects. The predictions are confirmed in the data, an unlikely scenario if exports were a mere proxy for other correlated drivers of women’s employment. The results show a large, positive impact of higher exports on the share of women workers. A conservative estimate is that for each percentage point increase in the ratio of exports to total sales, the share of women workers increases by 0.16 percentage point. Consistent with the theoretical predictions, this positive relationship is much larger (more positive) in industries that rely more on women workers, in country-industry pairs where competitive pressure is largely from international markets in comparison to less competitive domestic markets, when social attitudes and labor laws are more favorable toward women’s work, and when the law and order situation is more business friendly.
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