“It's Not You, It's Me”: Prices, Quality, and Switching in U.S.-China Trade Relationships
利用美国进口商及其中国出口商的机密数据，研究发现近半数进口商长期维持原有供应商，转换成本高且因产品质量和价格而异；降低一半转换成本可使中美进口价格指数下降7.6%。
Abstract Costs from switching suppliers can affect prices by discouraging buyer movements from high- to low-cost sellers. This paper uses confidential data on U.S. importers and their Chinese exporters to investigate these costs. I find barriers to supplier adjustments: nearly half of importers keep their partner over time. Importers switch less if their supplier offers higher quality or provides lower prices. I propose and structurally estimate a dynamic discrete choice model to compute switching costs. Cost estimates are large, heterogeneous across products, and matter for trade prices: halving switching costs reduces the U.S.-China Import Price Index by 7.6%.