It is a typical fact among Chinese manufacturing firms that the productivity of process-ing firms is significantly lower than that of others.Processing firms have long been regarded as those with low R&D and innovation,while a lot of practical cases show that processing trade plays an important role in firm innovation and upgrading.Therefore,this paper goes beyond the type of firms and focuses on trade behavior,and studies the impact of firms'shift from not engag-ing in processing trade to engaging in processing trade on their R&D and innovation.Based on Chinese manufacturing firm data from 2000 to 2006,this paper finds that engagement in process-ing trade significantly promotes firm innovation.The above results are robust when using the PSM-DID model and export tax rebate rate adjustment in 2004 as a quasi-experiment to control the self-selection effect of processing trade.This paper further divides processing trade behaviors into three categories:from non-trade to pure processing trade,from non-trade to hybrid trade,and from ordinary trade to hybrid trade.This paper finds that the latter two types are the main sources of innovation enhancement effect of processing trade.In addition,the innovation en-hancement effect for the firms from non-trade to hybrid trade originates from the synergistic effect of the two trade modes,which is the trade mode synergy mechanism.The shift from ordinary trade to hybrid trade mainly shows the development effect of processing trade on new markets and new products,which is reflected in the quality and technical standards mechanism.This paper argues that processing trade,as an important channel for manufacturing firms to embed in the global value chain,is still conducive to improving the overall innovation level of Chinese firms.
processing tradeR&D and innovationtrade-mode synergy effectquality and tech-nical standards effect
万方数据
维普
