Export Administrations,Switching Costs,and Inventory Efficiency:Firm Level Evidence from the Entity List
Under the background of increasingly intensified and complicated international competition,the technology block-ade of the great-powers has become a realistic problem of crucial importance for China.The United States has included a large number of Chinese enterprises to the Entity List of export administrations since 2018,restricting the export of specific commodities to Chinese enterprises.These kinds of commodities include raw materials,components and equipment contain-ing key technologies which are necessary for the production process.As the key technologies are relatively hard for other countries to imitate and master,export administrations of the United States may cause the production process of Chinese firms being involved in the Entity List unable to complete because of lacking materials with key technologies.Under this circum-stances,other unfinished goods involved in the production process and not imported from the United States have to backlog within the enterprise and unable to change into finished goods on time.Thus,inventory efficiency of Chinese enterprises be-ing involved into the Entity List may be reduced.Based on the above analysis,using the cases of Chinese firms being added to the Entity List of export administrations as exogenous shocks,we conduct a difference-in-differences analysis to examine the impact of export administrations of the United States on inventory efficiency of firms being involved in the Entity List.We find that export administrations have significantly reduced inventory efficiency of Chinese firms being involved in the Entity List.Compared with firms not involved in the Entity List,firms suffered from export administrations of the United States have more proportion of unfinished goods and longer days inventory outstanding.The heterogeneity analysis shows that firms with higher switching costs show less resilient in export administrations,namely the negative impact of export administrations on inven-tory efficiency is greater for firms with higher supply chain concentration,lower degree of diversification,and fewer overseas import channels.Further analysis reveals that the financial support of government and stronger innovation capabilities of firms can mitigate the negative impact of export administrations on firms'inventory efficiency.Our study provides theoretical and practical implications for taking countermeasures against Sino-U.S.trade friction,maintaining the security of China's indus-trial chains and moving faster to achieve China's greater self-reliance and strength in science and technology.
万方数据
