Assortative Matching of Exporters and Importers
研究了贸易自由化如何改变出口商与进口商之间的匹配关系，发现能力强的出口商与能力强的进口商更倾向于配对，这种系统性的伙伴转换提升了消费者福利。
This paper studies how exporting and importing firms match based on their capability by investigating the change in such exporter-importer matching during trade liberalization. During the recent liberalization of the Mexico-U.S. textile and apparel trade, exporters and importers often switch their main partners as well as change trade volumes. We develop a many-to-many matching model of exporters and importers where partner switching is the principal margin of adjustment, featuring Beckerian positive assortative matching by capability. Trade liberalization achieves efficient global buyer-supplier matching and improves consumer welfare by inducing systematic partner switching. The data confirm the predicted partner-switching patterns.