Quality sorting and trade: Firm-level evidence for French wine

Article dans une revue: Empirical investigation of the quality interpretation of the Melitz (2003) model of fi rm heterogeneity and trade has been limited by lack of direct data on quality. This paper matches firm-level export data with expert assessments of the quality of Champagne producers to estimate the key parameters of that model. Quality monotonically increases firm-level prices, the probability of market entry, and export values. The estimated model which calibrates the relative importance of firm-level quality and idiosyncratic demand accurately predicts the average quality exported to each country. Simulations show that the data reject the polar alternatives where outcomes are based entirely on either quality or randomness.

Auteur(s)

Matthieu Crozet, Keith Head, Thierry Mayer

Revue
  • Review of Economic Studies
Date de publication
  • 2012
Mots-clés JEL
F12 F14 L66
Mots-clés
  • Heterogeneous firms
  • Exports
  • Vertical differentiation
  • Productivité
  • Gravity
  • Champagne
Pages
  • 609-644
Version
  • 1
Volume
  • 79