Abstract
Since the reform and opening up,China has made full use of its comparative advantages,successfully embedded in global value chains,and promoted the expansion of trade scale.At the same time,China's export tax rebate policy has undergone more than 40 years of adjustment and institutional arrangements.So how does China's export tax rebate policy affect China's gains from trade?This book will try to comprehensively and systematically examine the role of export tax rebates at the firm-level and industry-level resource allocation and the relationship between export tax rebates and the firms' location of the global value chain under the framework of heterogeneous firms trade model,which can reveal the micro mechanism of the influence of export tax rebate on China's gains from trade.
In this book,the heterogeneity trade theory represented by Melitz(2003)and the continuous production theory of Dixit and Grossman(1982)are adopted,positions of the global value chain of the firms are incorporated into the heterogeneous trade model,and examine the mechanism of the export tax rebate policy through the mathematical model.This book not only examines the impact of export tax rebates on productivity(ie,the firm-level resource reallocation of export tax rebate),but also deeply analyzes the impact of export tax rebates on market distortions(ie,the industry-level resource reallocation of export tax rebates).Meanwhile,this book research the mechanism of export tax rebate on the position of global value chain,which improved the theoretical research on export tax rebate policy,expanded the perspective of trade policy research under the framework of monopolistic competition model,and constructed the bridge between the model of heterogeneous firm trade and global value chain,and measured and decomposed the gains from trade of export tax rebate policy from the overall level.
The first main point of this book is that under the symmetrical model of the two countries,export tax rebates promote overall productivity.Specifically,the export tax rebate policy has raised the productivity threshold for entry into the domestic market and lowered the productivity threshold for entry into the export market,especially in the sample of high-tech industries,which has played a positive role in reallocating resources between firms.The second is that the export tax rebate policy reduces the role of market distortions and plays a role of resource reallocation at the industry level.After adopting the DID method to overcome the potential endogenousness,the export tax rebate policy reallocated the resources of the industry,especially in optimizing the export market.The third is the export tax rebate policy promoted export firms to upstream of the global value chain.With the rise of the global value chain position,the role of firm-level resource re-allocation of export tax rebates has gradually increased,while the role of resource re-allocation at the industry level has gradually weakened .The fourth is that export tax rebates have improved China's gains from trade.Specifically,export tax rebates have increased per capita output in the country and improved product variety effects.On the other hand,it has worsened the terms of trade for global value chain correction and reduced the degree of product differentiation.
Based on the above main conclusions,the main policy recommendations of this book include two parts:First,to further optimize the export tax rebate policy and promote China's foreign trade development.The empirical results of this book prove that the role of resource reallocation at the firm level and industry level in the export tax rebate system is significant and reasonable.China's export tax rebate policy has been continuously adjusted in long-term practice.As a whole,the re-allocation of resources at the firm level and industry level for export tax rebates has boosted productivity and enabled China to benefit from participating in global trade.From this angle,the export tax rebate policy is positive.At the same time,export tax rebate policy can effectively mitigate the misallocation role of market distortions,promote the firm's survival of the fittest,and promote the further improvement of productivity at the industry level by reducing market distortions.Further,the export tax rebate policy should focus on guiding firms to play their own advantages and improve the term of trade weighted by the location of global value chain,so as to further enhance the gains from trade.
The second is to improve the construction of the market environment and strengthen the role of the market in the allocation of resources.The research in this book finds that market distortions are inversely proportional to industry average productivity and the productivity gap between sectors.Therefore,reducing market distortions can further increase the firms' productivity.It not only promotes the reform of the export tax rebate policy itself,but also coordinates with other national reforms,reduces the distorted allocation of resources in the market,further releases the vitality and potential of domestic development,promotes the transformation of economic development models,and actively joins the international market.
Key words:Export Tax Rebate;Resource Reallocation;Productivity;Global Value Chain Location;Gains from Trade