Research on the Impact of China's FTA Rules of Origin on Enterprises'Export Behavior:Based on Micro Enterprise Data
Enterprises are the basic factor to promote inter-country trade,and micro-enterprise export choices will affect the macroeco-nomic situation.In this paper,we first construct a dynamic rules of origin restriction index measurement system to measure the degree of rules of origin restriction in China's free trade zone.Secondly,it analyzes the mechanism of the influence of rules of ori-gin on the export behavior of enterprises under the framework of Melitz's(2003)heterogeneous enterprise model,and verifies the influence mechanism based on the matched data from China's industrial and customs databases by using the split-sample regres-sion and the sample-cutting method.The results of the benchmark regression show that the restrictiveness of the rules of origin re-duces the propensity of enterprises to export to FTA partner countries,and the increase of the restrictiveness of the rules of origin reduces the proportion of enterprises exporting to FTA partner countries.The results of the mechanism test show that the restric-tiveness of the rules of origin increases the production costs of enterprises,and that when the increased costs of the rules of origin restrictiveness exceed the additional profits obtained by enterprises through the FTA,the restrictiveness of the rules of origin no longer has an impact on the production behavior of enterprises.