Traffic Improvement, Industrial Chain Trade, and Regional Production Network​

Traffic Improvement, Industrial Chain Trade, and Regional Production Network

Tang Yun, Liang Ruobing
(1.School of Business Administrationꎬ Jimei University)
(2. School of Economics, Xiamen University)

Abstract: In theory, traffic improvement promotes inter-enterprise trade and inter-industry divi- sion and cooperation, and then forms regional and even national production network. This paper uses the enterprise value-added tax invoice data of Fujian Province to construct the variable of industrial chain correlation, and measures characteristic variables of industrial production net- work, so as to investigate the influence of highways on industrial division among enterprises and the formation of industrial chain in Fujian Province. First of all, this paper finds that highways promote the inter -industry sales of enterprises, deepen the trade relationship with enterprises closely related to the industry, and improve industrial diversity of sales objects, but have no sig- nificant impact on the intra-industry sales. Secondly, this paper identifies the relation between the sales of upstream and downstream enterprises in the industrial chain, and finds that the trade of upstream enterprises has a significantly promoting effect on the trade of downstream enterpri- ses. Moreover, the above results remain robust in the estimation of instrumental variables consid- ering endogeneity. Thirdly, this paper conducts alternative sample estimation for four possible cases that may cause estimation bias, and the results of industrial division and industry chain sales baseline estimation are still robust. Finally, this paper analyzes the heterogeneity of differ- ent industries and the centrality of production network, and finds that the traffic improvement has a significant impact on the downstream industries of manufacturing industry, while has a small impact on the service industry, and the sales promotion of upstream and downstream enterprises mainly appears in the manufacturing industry. As for industries with low network centrality, traffic improvement has a significantly positive impact on the sales, indicating that highways drive weak industries in the production network, thus weakening the structural imbalance of the network.