Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/162971 
Year of Publication: 
2016
Series/Report no.: 
Discussion Paper Series No. 628
Publisher: 
University of Heidelberg, Department of Economics, Heidelberg
Abstract: 
Little is known about the firm-level dynamics behind trade responses to political tensions. This article reinvestigates variation in the travel pattern of the 14th Dalai Lama to study how political tensions affect trading decisions of Chinese importers. Using monthly trade data from China Customs covering imports of machinery and transport equipment from 173 countries over the 2000-2006 period, our empirical results show a significant reduction of imports in response to foreign government members’ meetings with the Dalai Lama. In line with the idea that Chinese importers face a trade-off between bearing costs from suboptimal trade transactions and costs from not accommodating the government, this ‘Dalai Lama Effect’ operates at the intensive margin, i.e., via a decrease in the import volume per importer. Examining differential effects across types of firm ownership, we find that the observed effect is driven by state-owned enterprises (and foreign-invested firms) and not by private companies. Moreover, while direct importers temporarily reduce their trade with Dalai Lama-receiving countries, there is some evidence that trade intermediaries even benefit. Overall, we find the effects to be much more short-lived than previously thought.
Subjects: 
international trade
political tensions
extensive margin
intensive margin
state-owned enterprises
firm ownership
trade intermediation
China
Tibet
Dalai Lama
JEL: 
F51
F14
P33
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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