GVC Seminar Series No. 10

Multi-product Firms, Human Capital and Misallocations: Theory and Evidence from China

杨诶 (YANG Ei)

School of Finance

Shanghai University of Finance and Economics­­­­­­­

Venue:  Keyan 429 (科研楼配楼429)  Time:  May 16th 3:30 to 5:00pm

Abstract

Top 20% manufacturing firms in China produce about 90% of industrial output, compared to over 96% in United States. Using China NBS industrial firm-level dataset, we confirm the difference in a novel dimension in the number of products. While being large and old, multi-product firms are fewer and smaller in China. We find that human capital is important in the number of products and firm size. Firms with a higher human capital, especially in terms of undergraduate employees, are more likely to both add and drop products. Importantly, we also document the existence of large distortions between and within multi-product and single-product firms. We build a general equilibrium model with multi-product firms, human capital and distortions to understand these facts. The existence of multi-product firms amplifies the distortion and can account for the China-U.S. difference in firm sizes and product scopes.

主讲人简介：杨诶，助理教授， 现就职于上海财经大学金融学院。2016年毕业于美国波士顿大学，获博士学位。主要研究方向包括宏观经济学，货币银行，以及中国经济的相关问题。