Charles Braymen

R&D and the export decision of new firms

Recent literature on the firm-level decision to export has focused on identifying factors that influence the export decision by firms regardless of the number of years they have been in operation. This article, alternatively, examines the factors that influence new firms to export within the first four years of operation. The results support two key findings that have commonly emerged from entrepreneurial case studies: (1) There is a positive link between research and development (R&D) and early internationalization, and (2) international ties of managers, as is evidenced by the effect of foreign-born owners, positively impact the firms decision to export. The former result is the emphasis of this article. In addition, we find that innovation spillovers from neighboring firms impact the export decision of new firms that engage in R&D.

Enclaves and entrepreneurial success

Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of immigrant and ethnic enclaves on the success of entrepreneurial ventures as measured by firm profits and viability. Design/methodology/approach - – Data on entrepreneurs and their new firms were provided by the Kauffman Foundation and covered the years 2004-2008. These firm-level data were linked to Census 2000 Summary Files at the ZIP Code level and were used to empirically investigate the effect of enclaves. Findings - – The paper found a statistically significant negative effect of immigrant representation in an area on firm profitability. This effect operated on native, rather than immigrant, firm owners, which suggested that native-owned firms locating in immigrant enclaves may experience difficulty assimilating the benefits that enclaves offer. Practical implications - – Cultural connections within local communities play a key role in the success of new businesses. Potential firms should recognize the importance of these connections when making firm location decisions. Likewise, the findings suggest that connections within local communities should be considered when designing aid programs. Originality/value - – The authors used a unique measure of enclave representation to incorporate both immigrant, as well as ethnic, representation in the local area. The authors examined the effect of immigration on both immigrant- and native-owned firms in order to provide a broader scope and a more complete understanding of the effects of immigration on entrepreneurial ventures.

The Effect of Real Exchange Rate Volatility on the Trade of Educational Services

ABSTRACT This article finds that high levels of real exchange rate volatility between two trading partners significantly decrease the amount of educational services traded. Many academic institutions are actively looking to expand exports of educational services as a means of increasing revenues. Internal policies that reduce real exchange rate uncertainty may help encourage trade of educational services between countries where volatility is high. The discovery that real exchange rate volatility serves as a significant barrier to attracting educational export opportunities to certain countries underscores an obstacle that should and/or could be addressed as academic institutions strive to expand their international enrollments.

International Diversification: The Weighting is the Hardest Part

Many traditional, international diversification approaches do not address the influence of economic integration and corresponding market correlations across countries. The authors develop a trade-adjusted weighting methodology that reduces the effect of economic integration on portfolio performance. Results demonstrate that the trade-adjusted portfolio outperforms a GDP-weighted portfolio in terms of risk-adjusted returns. Likewise, the trade-adjusted portfolio’s performance exceeds that of an equally weighted portfolio in most risk-adjusted measures. These results provide a strong argument for investment managers to use trade-adjusted weightings in forming portfolios and developing financial products.

Income differences in services trade partners

This article examines how differences in the income levels of trading partners influence the bilateral trade of services from 2000 to 2010. Overall, the results show that dissimilar per capita income levels across trade partners positively and significantly influence services trade. These findings hold not only when utilizing bilateral data on aggregate services trade, but also when considering bilateral services trade at the industry level. Our findings suggest that policy-makers looking to expand trade in services should foster trading relationships with partners that have dissimilar income profiles.

Tax Policies, Regional Trade Agreements and Foreign Direct Investment: A Welfare Analysis

In this paper, we develop a partial equilibrium three‐country model to examine the relationship between regional trade agreements (RTAs) and foreign direct investment (FDI) in an environment with double taxation. Our analysis shows that FDI is welfare‐improving for at least one or both of the two regional countries if wage asymmetry is significantly large. FDI and an RTA are also welfare‐improving for the high‐wage country and the region if the wage differential is not small. We also examine the role of repatriation taxes in affecting the determination of firm location under an RTA. Our results suggest that the signing of an RTA may induce relocation from the high‐wage country to the low‐wage country unless an increase in the repatriation tax rate also occurs.

Income Distribution and the Composition of Imports

Are similar types of goods imported to countries that have similar characteristics? It is possible that the total volume of trade is similar and yet the types of goods are different. This article investigates the trading pattern of countries with similar characteristics. More specifically, we analyze the relationship between the import patterns and income distributions of importers. We develop an import similarity index to portray the composition of imports and utilize the idea of “market overlap” (Bohman & Nilsson 2007a) to represent the similarity of income distributions across different importing countries. We provide empirical evidence to support the notion that countries with similar income distributions display similar import patterns.