Exporters in China

To understand the dynamics of the Chinese economy and Chinese firms, it is important to ex-amine firms' export behaviors, in particular the role of foreign-owned firms in export. This paper investigates entries to and exits from export markets of Chinese firms and the relation between such behaviors and productivity improvement. Using firm-level panel data for China from 2000 to 2007, we find that a large number of Chinese firms including unproductive ones entered export markets, probably stimulated by the export boom in 2000s. However, many small exporters exited from export markets soon after their entry. Accordingly, export markets of China are going to be occupied by a small number of large firms. JEL Classification Codes：F14, O14, O30 Keywords：Chinese firms, Export, Productivity, Panel data