Trade Liberalization, Export and Product Innovation

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Author: Sun, Sizhong
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Sun, Sizhong
author_facet Sun, Sizhong
contents This paper studies firms' optimal response to a trade liberalization shock in terms of export and product innovation both theoretically and empirically. We find that trade liberalization, namely China's WTO accession, reduces trade cost and promotes export, which in turn incentivizes firms to innovate as the marginal benefit of innovation for exporting firms is higher than that for non-exporting firms. In addition, as a firm starts to innovate, it predicts to have a higher probability of moving to a better productivity state and can save the entry cost of innovation in the future, resulting in additional dynamic benefits. Such an innovation-promotion effect is an unintended consequence of trade liberalization.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_23825
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Trade Liberalization, Export and Product Innovation
Sun, Sizhong
General Economics
Economics
This paper studies firms' optimal response to a trade liberalization shock in terms of export and product innovation both theoretically and empirically. We find that trade liberalization, namely China's WTO accession, reduces trade cost and promotes export, which in turn incentivizes firms to innovate as the marginal benefit of innovation for exporting firms is higher than that for non-exporting firms. In addition, as a firm starts to innovate, it predicts to have a higher probability of moving to a better productivity state and can save the entry cost of innovation in the future, resulting in additional dynamic benefits. Such an innovation-promotion effect is an unintended consequence of trade liberalization.
title Trade Liberalization, Export and Product Innovation
topic General Economics
Economics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.23825