Accounting for the Growth of MNC-Based Trade Using a Structural Model of U.S. MNCs
利用美国经济分析局1983-1996年数据，通过模型分解美国跨国公司贸易增长来源，发现关税削减解释了大部分公司间贸易增长，而公司内贸易增长主要归因于技术变革，尤其是准时制生产的作用。
In recent decades, U.S. foreign trade grew much faster than GDP, but there is no consensus why. Notably lacking is an understanding of the role of multinational corporations (MNCs), which mediate over half of world trade. We use Bureau of Economic Analysis data on U.S. MNCs to study the rapid growth of MNC-based trade from 1983 to 1996. Using a model of U.S. MNCs and Canadian affiliates, we decompose this growth by source. Tariff reductions can largely explain increases in arms-length MNC-based trade. But intra-firm trade growth is attributed mostly to “technical change.” We present additional evidence suggesting just-in-time production facilitated intra-firm trade.