Information accessibility and export quality: Evidence from China

Abstract

AbstractExploiting Google's 2010 withdrawal from mainland China, we examine the causal impact of information accessibility on export quality, and find that export quality decreases after Google's exit. The effect is more pronounced for firms and products facing greater information frictions, for firms in regions with local web filters, for firms trading with countries with more online information, and for firms facing fiercer product market competition. The more intensively affected firms also become less productive and their capital intensity declines after Google's exit. Overall, these results suggest that limited information accessibility may impair a country's international competitiveness through deteriorating export quality.