OWNERSHIP AND CONTROL IN OUTSOURCING TO CHINA:
ESTIMATING THE PROPERTY-RIGHTS THEORY OF THE FIRM*

byRobert C. Feenstra and Gordon H. Hanson
January 2005

Abstract
We develop a simple model of international outsourcing and apply it to processing trade in
China. Export processing involves a foreign firm contracting with a Chinese factory manager toassemble intermediate inputs into a final product. Whether the same or different parties shouldhave ownership of the processing factory and control over input purchases depends onparameters of the model, which we estimate. We find that multinational firms engaged in export
processing in China tend to split factory ownership and input control with local managers: themost common outcome is to have foreign factory ownership but Chinese control over input
purchases. Our model estimates indicate that this pattern is especially prevalent in the southerncoastal provinces, where export markets are thickest and contracting costs are lowest.
JEL #F14, L23*

We thank the editors and referees for their helpful comments, along with Lei Meng, Barry
Naughton, and seminar participants at Brown University, Claremont Graduate University,
Columbia University, Harvard University, the National Bureau of Economic Research,
Northwestern University, Princeton University, Stanford University, the University of California,
Irvine, the University of California, Los Angeles, the University of California, San Diego, theUniversity of Michigan, and the University of Wisconsin. Jeffrey Lin and Songhua Lin provided
excellent research assistance.
Corresponding author: Gordon H. Hanson, Graduate School of International Relations andPacific Studies, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 920930519.

I. Introduction
Global production is a common feature of the modern firm. Businesses as diverse as
Mattel, which makes plastic dolls, Dell, which sells personal computers, and Intel, which makes
semiconductors, operate supply chains that span multiple countries. Typically, multinationalfirms produce components in one location, process components into final goods in anotherlocation, and manage these operations from headquarters in yet another location. While trade
theory has used general-equilibrium models to examine location decisions by multinationalfirms,1 the literature has tended to abstract away from how multinationals set firm boundaries
within global supply chains. Until recently, trade theory has not sought to explain why Intel
would use wholly-owned subsidiaries in China and Costa Rica to assemble its microchips, while
Dell and Mattel subcontract production to outside firms in many countries. Nor has it tried toaccount for why Dell would control who buys what from whom along its PC supply chain, while
Mattel grants the suppliers that make its dolls latitude in finding sources for materials.
In recent work, trade theorists bring modern theories of the firm into trade models.2
Building on Grossman and Helpman [2002a, 2002b], Antràs [2003] and Antràs and Helpman[2004] use the property-rights theory of Grossman and Hart [1986] and Hart and Moore [1990]
to model global outsourcing and intra-firm trade. Grossman and Helpman [2004] apply the
incentive-systems framework of Holmstrom and Milgrom [1994] to managerial compensation in
global production, and Marin and Verdier [2001, 2003] and Puga and Trefler [2002] extend theAghion and Tirole [1997] theory of delegating authority to general equilibrium.
In this paper, we build a simple model of international outsourcing and apply this model
to China. We consider a multinational firm that has decided to set up an export processing plantin a low-wage country. In this arrangement, the firm sends intermediate inputs to a processing

2factory, which converts the inputs into finished goods and then exports the final output. The
decisions facing the multinational include who should own the processing factory and whoshould control input-purchase decisions the factory makes. Following recent trade literature, we
use the Grossman-Hart-Moore property-rights (PR) theory as the basis for our model. In thisframework, parties use control rights over productive assets to ameliorate hold-up problems
created by incomplete contracts. Our model is general enough, however, to allow for results inthe spirit of the Holmstrom-Milgrom incentive-systems (IS) framework.
The application to China is motivated by the importance of export processing to global
trade and by the availability of detailed trade data on China. As described in section II, we
observe China’s processing exports broken down by who owns the plant and by who controls the
inputs the plant processes. Since the early 1980s, China has permitted foreign ownership ofexport processing plants. It stipulates that all processing plants (whether Chinese or foreign
owned) operate according to one of two regimes: a pure-assembly regime, in which a foreign
buyer supplies a plant in China with inputs and hires the plant to process them into finishedgoods, all the while retaining ownership over the inputs; and an import-and-assembly regime, inwhich a plant in China imports inputs of its own accord, processes them, and sells the processed
goods to a foreign buyer. This level of contractual detail is rarely observed in international trade.
In our model of export processing, presented in section III, contracts are incomplete andparties divide gains from trade by Nash bargaining. The threat-point payoffs associated withbargaining do not fully compensate parties for their investments in human capital and depend, instandard fashion, on who has the relevant control rights (i.e., ownership of the factory or control
over input decisions). The essential tradeoff of the model comes because investments in input
search are at their first-best level when that same party has ownership and control (similar to the

3
IS framework). But investments in processing (by the manager) and marketing (by the foreignfirm) are closest to their first-best when different parties have ownership and control. Thisoccurs because when the foreign firm owns the factory, its outside options and incentives toinvest in marketing are strong; but in this case, we argue that the manager’s outside options are
improved if she searches for the input. Thus, whether ownership and control should be given to
the same or different parties depends on parameters of the model, such as the specificity ofhuman-capital investments and value-added in processing versus that in input search. When
input search matters more, concentrated ownership and control is optimal, but when processing
matters more, then divided ownership and control is optimal.3
Previewing the empirical results in sections IV and V, we find that multinational firms
engaged in export processing in China tend to split factory ownership and input control withfactory managers in China: the most common outcome is to have foreign factory ownership but
Chinese control over input purchases. This is consistent with moderate or low human-capital
specificity, which our parameter estimates confirm. In our benchmarks results, the project
specificity of human-capital investments is 28 to 51 percent in interior and northern provinces
but only 22 percent in the more export-oriented southern coastal provinces. Thus, investment
specificity is lowest where export markets are thickest. The parameter for specificity can also beinterpreted as the cost of resolving commercial disputes, and consistent with our results, thesecosts are lowest in the southern coastal provinces and highest in the interior and north [Dollar etal. 2003]. Our preferred estimate of the Nash bargaining weight for multinational firms is 0.7,
but the confidence interval includes the value 0.5, which corresponds to simple Nash bargaining.
Our findings are relevant to several bodies of literature. Incomplete contracts are acommon feature of recent trade models, but there is little empirical work on contracting costs in4international trade.4 Our contribution is to estimate sources of contractual incompleteness inglobal production. While estimated for China, export-processing activities are widespread inCentral America, Eastern Europe, and South and East Asia [Yeats 2001]. This suggests our
results may be widely applicable, as discussed in section V. A second body of literature towhich our work relates is empirical research on modern theories of the firm. Despite intensetheoretical interest in the PR and IS models, few papers have tested them.5 A notable exception
is Baker and Hubbard [2003, 2004] who examine contractual arrangements in U.S. trucking.6
They exploit the introduction of on-board computers in trucks, which changed the costs ofmonitoring drivers. They find evidence consistent with the PR and IS models. Our work, which
exploits the interaction between choices over ownership and input-purchase regimes, is similar in
spirit to theirs. We extend the literature by estimating contracting costs in a developing-country
context, where contractual incompleteness is thought to be severe but is rarely estimatedempirically.

II. Export Processing in China
Export processing plays a major role in China’s foreign trade, accounting for 55.6 percentof the country’s total exports over our sample period of 1997 to 2002 (Table I). The activity
involves a firm in China importing intermediate inputs, processing the inputs, and then exporting
the finished goods. Inputs are imported duty-free as long as these goods are only used to
produce exports. China has two regulatory regimes for export processing.
The Pure-Assembly Regime. In this arrangement, a foreign firm supplies a factory in
China with materials from abroad [Naughton 1996]. The factory in China, whose role isrelatively passive, receives orders from and delivers processed goods to the foreign client, who5then sells the goods outside China. While the factory takes possession of the imported materials
during processing, the foreign firm retains ownership over them. The foreign firm pays thefactory in China a fee for its processing services. To obtain clearance from Chinese customs toimport materials and to export processed goods, the terms of the transaction between the Chinese
factory and the foreign firm must be stipulated in a written contract and presented in advance toChinese customs officials for approval.7 Legally, the processing factory may use imported
materials for the sole purpose of meeting its obligations to the foreign client.
The Import-and-Assembly Regime. In this arrangement, the processing factory in China
plays a more active role. Table I shows that this regime is the more common form of export
processing, accounting for 70.7 percent of processing exports over the 1997-2002 period. The
factory imports materials of its own accord and takes ownership of these materials during
processing. It may broker deals to process goods for multiple foreign firms [World Bank 1994].
Thus, the factory in China controls both the import of inputs and the export of processed goods(though usually not the marketing and sale of the good to end users). Legally, Chinese customs
treats processing plants under this regime as bonded warehouses – facilities that are permitted toimport inputs duty free under the proviso that they export all output. Bonded goods cannot betransferred to another party without the approval of Chinese customs. To become a bonded
warehouse, a plant must apply to the Chinese government and have warehouse facilities andaccounting personnel that meet government standards.8 Under either regime, exporters are
required to submit monthly reports on the status of their contracts and to verify that the contract
has been completed within a month of having exported the finished goods.
There are several important distinctions between the two processing regimes. One relates
to the responsibilities of the factory manager in China. Under pure-assembly, the manager

6appears to play a small role in searching for inputs or in other activities that precede input
processing. Under import-and assembly, the factory manager has greater responsibility. A
second distinction has to do with to controls rights over imported materials. Under pureassembly, the foreign buyer of the processed goods owns the materials used in processing.
Without this buyer’s consent, the factory in China cannot legally use the imported materials toprocess goods for another client. Under import-and-assembly, in contrast, the processing factoryowns the imported materials. It may use them to produce for the foreign buyer of its choice, solong as the goods are exported. A third distinction between the two regimes is that they are
subject to different approval processes and regulations. In particular, import-and-assembly
factories are required to make greater investments in inventory storage and management. Thissuggests that a processing plant cannot costlessly or quickly change from one regime to another.
Processing factories may be owned by either Chinese or foreign interests. Foreigninvested enterprises (FIEs) play a major role in China’s trade. Table I shows that over the period
1997-2002 FIEs accounted for 62.8 percent of China’s processing exports. The Chinese
government recognizes two categories of FIEs, wholly foreign-owned enterprises and equity
joint ventures in which a foreign interest has at least a 25 percent ownership stake. We shallrefer to both of these as “foreign owned.” It is important to recognize, however, that foreign
ownership in our model is not equivalent to foreign control. Rather, we will assume that control
over input-processing always resides with a local (Chinese) manager, while control over input
sourcing will reside with the foreign firm or local manager, depending on whether the pureassembly or import-and-assembly regime is being used. Foreign ownership simply means thatthe foreign firm has property rights over the residual profits of the plant, as described next in ourmodel.

7

III. The Model
We begin by describing the problem faced by a foreign firm wanting to locate export
processing operations in China. The parties choose who should own the factory used in
production and who should control the purchase of inputs processed by this plant. Our model
follows closely the PR approach of Grossman and Hart [1986] and Hart and Moore [1990].
Consider a foreign firm, denoted by f, transacting with a factory manager in China,
denoted by g. The project requires the parties to purchase one unit of an input, to use a factory toprocess the input into one unit of a final product, and then to market and sell the final product.
Timing is as follows: In period 0 the parties choose who should own the factory and who should
control input purchases; in period 1 the parties simultaneously make effort investments; and inperiod 2 the parties undertake input purchases, input processing, and final sales.
The efforts undertaken in period 1 are as follows: e1 = effort devoted to searching for a
low-priced input, by either party f or g; e2 = effort devoted to processing the input, by thefactory manager g; e3 = effort devoted to marketing the final good, by the foreign firm f. The
price of the input in period 2 is given by the linear function P·(1– e1), P > 0, 0 ≤ e1 ≤ 1 , so that
more search effort e1 lowers the input price. The cost of input processing in period 2 is given by
A·(1– e2), A > 0, 0 ≤ e 2 ≤ 1 , so that effort e2 devoted to processing lowers costs. Revenues fromfinal sales in period 2 are given by B·(1+λe2+e3), where 0 < λ ≤ 1 , 0 ≤ e 3 ≤ 1 and B > (A+P) > 0,so that more marketing effort raises sales revenue. Combined period 2 profits are then(1)

π = B(1+λe2+e3) – A(1–e2) – P(1–e1) > 0.

8Notice that we have introduced an element of joint production between input processing
and sales, with effort e2 by the manager affecting both. Preparing the factory for production may
enhance plant efficiency (lowering processing costs) and product quality (raising sales
revenues).9 Joint production means that it may be difficult to fully compensate the manager,reflecting the marginal contributions of her effort to both input processing and final sales.
Let the variable δ1∈{0,1} indicate whether the foreign firm f (δ1= 0) or the manager g(δ1=1) expends search effort e1. We refer to this indicator variable as control over input
purchases. In addition, we use the ownership variable δ2∈{0,1} to indicate whether the foreign
firm f (δ2 = 0) or whether the Chinese manager g (δ2 = 1) owns the processing factory.
The period 1 effort investments, ei, i=1,2,3, impose a cost on the parties involved. The
costs of supplying effort for the foreign firm are C f [(1 − δ 2 )e1 , e 3 ] =costs to the manager are Cg(δ1e1, e2) =

γg
2

γf
[(1 − δ1 )e12 + e 32 ] , and the2( δ1e12 + e 22 ) , where γf and γg are the disutility of effort

for each party. The total surplus from the project is then(2)

W(δ1, δ2) = π – Ch[(1–δ1)e1, e3] – Cf(δ1e1, e2).

Note that the effort levels in (2) will depend on the ownership and control variables δ1 and δ2.
This occurs because we assume that it is difficult to write contracts to compensate effort, so theparties Nash bargain instead. But for reference, we note that with perfect contracts the first-besteffort levels that maximize (2) are: e1* = max{P/γf, P/γg} e*2 = (A+λB)/γg, and e*3 = B/γf.

III.A Nash Bargaining

9
We will allow for generalized Nash bargaining where the foreign firm has bargaining
weight θ and the Chinese manager has weight (1 – θ). The status quo or threat-point payoffs forthe two parties will be denoted by π̂ f and π̂ g (as specified below). Total ex post profits are

given by (1), and the profits πf and πg earned by each party are then(3)

Party f receives:

πf = πˆ f + θ( π − πˆ g − πˆ f ) = θ( π − πˆ g ) + (1 − θ) πˆ f

(4)Party g receives:

πg = πˆ g + (1 − θ)( π − πˆ f − πˆ g ) = (1 − θ)( π − πˆ f ) + θπˆ g .

Thus, each party will choose their effort levels to maximize the difference between these payoffs
and the costs of supplying effort:(5)

Party f solves:max
π – Cf[(1–δ1)e1, e3] ,(1−δ1 ) e1 ,e3 f(6)Party g solves:max
δ1e1 ,e2

π g – Cg(δ1e1, e2) ,where the foreign firm f chooses e1 when δ1=0, while the manager g chooses e1 when δ1=1.
In order to solve these problems, we need to be more specific about the threat-point
payoffs available to each party. We make three interrelated assumptions:(A.1) When Nash bargaining breaks down, the party owning the factory is entitled to theresidual profits and completes the project by contracting for the services of another partyon the spot market (i.e., the foreign firm hires another factory manager or the factory
manager contracts with another foreign buyer).
(A.2) Under the spot contracts in (A.1), the parties earn only a fraction of their marginal

products. In particular, the marginal product of their period 1 effort investments are
reduced by ψ, with 0 < ψ < 1, so the payoffs are (1 – ψ) times the first-best level.

10(A.3) In the case where the foreign firm owns the factory, and Nash bargaining breaks

down, the manager seeks a job elsewhere. But her prior effort investments are valued if
and only if she has searched for the inputs (that is, if and only if δ1 = 1).

These three assumptions generate all our results, so it is important to understand them.
The first two assumptions are standard in PR-type models. (A.1) clarifies that ownership of thefactory confers the right to residual profits, which guarantees the owner full marginal incentives
on investments in non-joint-production activities. On the spot market, the effort investments ofthe party not owning the factory are not as highly valued: in (A.2), ψ can be interpreted as thehuman-capital specificity of these investments, or alternatively, as the ability to contract overthese investments. Under the latter interpretation, we are allowing for imperfect contracts in thethreat points, but both parties still prefer to Nash bargain over the project at hand, because thenthey earn their threat-point payoffs plus a share of the remaining profits ( π − πˆ g − πˆ f ) > 0.10
In the case where the manager owns the factory (δ2=1), then (A.1) and (A.2) imply:(7)⎧∂πˆ f / ∂e1 = (1 − ψ )PWhen δ2 = 1: ∂πˆ f / ∂e 3 = (1 − ψ )B , and ⎨⎩ ∂πˆ g / ∂e1 = P

if δ1 = 0
if δ1 = 1.

The foreign firm f earns a fraction of its marginal product from effort investments in input search(P) or marketing (B), whereas the manager g earns her full marginal product in input search (P).
In addition, because she is entitled to the residual profits, the manager earns her full marginal
product of effort in input processing (A), but a fraction of her marginal product in sales (λB):(8)

When δ2 = 1: ∂πˆ g / ∂e 2 = A + (1 − ψ )λB .

11Even when the manager owns the factory, she must contract with a foreign firm on the spot
market to sell the final good, implying her returns on this activity are reduced by ψ, from (A.2).
When the foreign firm owns the factory (δ2 = 0), then (A.1) and (A.2) become:(9)⎧∂πˆ f / ∂e1 = P
When δ2 = 0: ∂πˆ f / ∂e 3 = B , and ⎨⎩ ∂πˆ g / ∂e1 = (1 − ψ)Pif δ1 = 0.
if δ1 = 1

The foreign firm f has full marginal investment incentives in marketing (B) and input search (P).
But the marginal incentive of the manager g to engage in input search is reduced by ψ when she
does not own the factory: in the event that bargaining breaks down, she must hire herself out toanother factory for whom her search investments presumably won’t be as valuable.
What about the manager’s incentive to make effort investment towards processing the
input? Our final assumption is that effort in input processing is more highly valued by otherfirms if the manager has also searched for the input. For example, input search can lead toknowledge of the characteristics and availability of foreign inputs, which may raise the returns to
the manager’s processing ability in other plants. Formally, we state (A.3) as:(10)

When δ2 = 0: ∂πˆ g / ∂e 2 = δ1 (1 − ψ )( A + λB) .

The manager’s effort investments are valued if and only if she searched for the inputs (δ1 = 1).
While we use a strong form of (A.3) for convenience, the key feature requires that:∂πˆ g (1,0)∂e 2−∂πˆ g (0,0)∂e 2>∂πˆ g (1,1)∂e 2−∂πˆ g (0,1)∂e 2.

That is, the increase in returns on processing effort from giving the manager control over input
purchases (going from (0,δ2) to (1,δ2)) is larger when she does not own the factory (δ2 = 0, on the12left of the inequality) than when she does (δ2 = 1, on the right of the inequality). This conditionis satisfied so long as giving the factory manager control over input purchases matters more (interms of improving her outside options) when she is in a weaker bargaining position (as applies
when she does not own the factory). We assume an analogous asymmetry does not apply to theforeign firm. Since the foreign firm may engage in many projects, acquiring control over input
purchases in just one project is likely to have a relatively small impact on its outside options.

III.B Solutions for Effort Investments
Using the specifications of the marginal threat-point payoffs in (7)-(10), we can solve forthe effort investments from (5) and (6). These are shown in Table II and have the following
general features. First, on the diagonal of Table II, the efforts e1 devoted to input search are attheir first-best levels. This result follows from assumption (A.1), whereby the party owning theplant earns the residual profits. If they also control the input decisions then there is every
incentive to engage in first-best search. This result suggests that ownership and control should
be given to the same party, illustrating the general finding of Holmstrom and Milgrom [1994],
but obtained here in a PR model.
Second, the effort investment e3 by the foreign firm towards marketing the final good is
at its first-best level when the foreign firm owns the factory (the first column of Table II), sincethen it is entitled to the residual profits. But in this case, it is most difficult to obtain good effort
e2 by the manager towards processing the input. She receives a share of the profits in the Nashbargain, of course, but if bargaining breaks downs then she is not entitled to the residual profits,
which puts her in a particularly weak bargaining position. This creates a disincentive for her toput any effort into input-processing in the first place. A solution to this holdup problem is to13give her control over input search, which by (A.3) will improve her outside option and therefore
her ex post bargaining power. In the first column of Table II, the effort e2 in input processing iscloser to its first-best when the manager controls the input decision (the lower-left cell) than not(the upper-left cell).
Using the effort levels in Table II, the value of surplus in each case can be computed. A
convenient summary statistic is the modularity of the surplus function, defined by(11)

V ≡ W(0,0) + W(1,1) – W(0,1) – W(1,0).

If V > 0 then W is strictly supermodular, so the highest values for W are obtained when δ1 andδ2 take on the same values. In our model, it means that it will be optimal for the same party tocontrol the inputs and to own the factory. 11 This is the general finding in the IS framework ofHolmstrom and Milgrom [1994]. Conversely, when V < 0 then W is strictly submodular, so it is
optimal for δ1 and δ2 to take on different values, meaning that one party controls input purchases
and the other owns the factory.
Using the effort levels in Table II, we obtain (see the Appendix for details)(12)⎡ (1 − θ) 2 ψ 2 θ 2 ψ 2 ⎤ (A + λB) 2 (1 − ψ 2 )θ 2.
+
V = P2 ⎢⎥−2γ g ⎥⎦
2γ g⎢⎣ 2 γ f

It is apparent that (12) can be positive or negative, so that the surplus function can be either
supermodular or submodular. Furthermore, we can readily see that
(13)

∂V
∂V
∂V
< 0,
> 0 and> 0.
∂ ( A + λB)∂P∂ψ
To interpret condition (13), recall that (A+λB) is the marginal product of the manager’s

processing effort e2. When this marginal product is high, it is particularly important to obtain14
good effort investments e2 from the manager. To ameliorate that holdup problem when theforeign firm owns the factory, we have argued that the manager should be given control over
input sourcing. This means that giving ownership and control to different parties is more likely
when (A+λB) rises, so the surplus function is more submodular.
Conversely, P is the marginal product of the manager’s or the foreign firm’s effort
investment in input search. As P rises, then it becomes particularly important to obtain goodeffort investments e1 in search. That outcome is obtained by giving ownership and control to thesame party – either the manager or the foreign firm. Thus, as P rises then the surplus function ismore supermodular, which is the second inequality in (13).
Finally, as human capital is more specific or contracts are increasingly difficult to write
then ψ rises, making it harder to elicit good effort from the party not owning the factory. As
ψ→1 it will become impossible to obtain any effort investment e2 from the manager if she does
not own the factory, so the surplus of the project is maximized by getting the best effort possible
on input search, as obtained when the same party has ownership and control. Thus, higher
values of ψ correspond to more supermodular surplus, which is the final result in (13). We canthink of a high value of ψ as indicating “thin” labor markets or high contracting costs, as may
occur in inland regions of China. We see, therefore, that the modularity of the surplus function
may well differ over regions of China, as we investigate next.

IV. Data and Nonparametric Results

IV.A Data
The data we use to measure processing trade are from the Customs General
Administration of the People’s Republic of China, and show processing exports by year (1997-

152002), 8-digit harmonized system (HS) product, origin city-districts in China (including tradezone status), destination country (including whether goods are exported directly or through HongKong), customs regime (pure-assembly or import-and-assembly), and ownership type (foreign or
Chinese-owned), yielding approximately 170,000 observations per year.12 Summary values fromthese data were reported in Table I.
The detail in these data approach that which might be available from a firm level dataset,even though the fundamental observation available to us is the 8-digit HS product, Chinese citydistrict, and destination market. For example, if there is a single factory processing “women’s orgirl’s suit-type jackets of wool” in Pudong, Shanghai, operating in a SEZ, and exporting goods
directly to the United States, then the Chinese data would show its ownership and control regime
along with its export value. However, if there are several such processing factories in Pudong(located in the same economic zone and exporting the same product directly to the UnitedStates), then the exports of each ownership and control regime represented there would be listed.
Thus, a given city-economic zone-product-destination market cell might show positive exports
for more than one type of contractual arrangement, though this is the exception.13
In this section we sum over observations to report the aggregate export shares by type ofownership and control, and in the next section we shall make use of the disaggregate data. As
explained in the next section, we also make use of import and re-export data for Hong Kong by
year (1997-2001), source and destination country, and 8-digit HS product. An Appendix to thispaper provides more information on the data used; a more detailed version of that Appendix isavailable on our home pages.

IV.B Modularity

16
The modularity of the surplus function cannot be tested directly, because we do not
observe the value of surplus from outsourcing activity; instead, we observe the processing
exports accounted for by each ownership and control regime. To move from the value of surplusin (12) to the frequency of contractual regimes in our data, we adopt a simple stochastic
specification. In particular, we suppose that ownership and control in our data are chosen to
maximize W(δ1, δ2) plus an i.i.d. extreme value random error that varies across contractual
types.14 Then it is well known [Train 1986] that the probabilities of observing each contractual
type take on the logit form:(14)

Pr(i, j) =exp[ W(i, j)],∑i, j= 0,1 exp[ W(i, j)]i,j ∈ {0,1}.

To measure the probabilities on the left of (14), we shall use the share of processing
trade accounted for by each contractual type. Denoting these export shares by S(i, j), ourmeasure of the modularity of the welfare function is then:(15)

V ≡ [W(0,0) + W(1,1) – W(1,0) – W(0,1)]= [ln S(0,0) + ln S(1,1) – ln S(1,0) – ln S(0,1)] ,where the second line follows from replacing Pr(i, j) by S(i, j) in (14). We assess the modularityof the welfare function in Chinese export processing by calculating the expression for the sum oflog export shares in the first line of equation (15). We then see how this expression varies acrossChinese regions and trade policy regimes.
In Table III, the first two columns show export shares in the total sample, and the second
two columns show export shares for all provinces except those on the southern coast (i.e.,
excluding Shanghai, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, and Hainan).15 Reading down the diagonalof the first matrix, foreign control of the inputs (the pure-assembly regime) combined with

17
foreign ownership of the factory accounts for an average of 8.3 percent of processing exports,
while Chinese ownership of the factory and control of the inputs accounts for 14.6 percent ofprocessing exports. Much more weight occurs on the off-diagonal, where Chinese control of the
inputs (the import-and-assembly regime) combined with foreign ownership of the factory
accounts for 49.6 percent of exports, and foreign control of the inputs combined with Chinese
ownership of the factory accounts for 27.1 percent of processing exports. Computing modularity
V as in (15), this is highly negative. Thus, the full sample support the submodularity of thesurplus function.
From (13), we expect the welfare function to be less submodular where value-added inprocessing is lower or the parameter ψ – representing human capital specificity or contractual
incompleteness – is higher. In China, export processing activities are highly concentrated insouthern coastal provinces, suggesting thicker labor markets and less human capital specificity.
In addition, it turns out that contracting costs (the time taken to complete court cases) are lower
in the southern coastal provinces, as we discuss later. For both reasons, we expect ψ to be higher
in the interior and northern regions than on the southern coast. In the second two columns ofTable III, we separate out processing exports for the northern and interior provinces (i.e.
excluding Shanghai, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, and Hainan). For those provinces we findthat the V measure is positive rather than negative, indicating supermodular welfare. This isconsistent with the last inequality in (13).
Another explanation for differing modularity of surplus over the regions of China is theindustry mix. In Table IV we report modularity measures for a low value-added industry(apparel) with a high value-added industry (office machines). Interior provinces are relatively
specialized in low value-added industries.16 Rather than report the entire matrix of export shares

18
by ownership and control type, we report just the key off-diagonal cell (foreign ownership andChinese control), and the overall modularity measure.17 We see that apparel has a much lower
export share in the foreign ownership/Chinese control regime, and also much lower modularity.
This is consistent with the first inequalities in (13), whereby lower value-added in processing, or
higher value-added from input search, leads to lower modularity of the surplus function.
Next, we consider whether the processing activity in China takes place with Special
Economic Zones (SEZ) or not. In the early stage of China’s economic opening, the government
permitted foreign trade and investment only in SEZs located in the southern coastal provinces of
Guangdong and Fujian. In the mid to late 1980s, the government expanded the number ofregions where such activities were permitted, and by the 1990s, foreign trade and investment
were allowed (subject to government approval) throughout the country [Demurger et al. 2002].
Among other advantages, the SEZs operate separate court system set up to handle civil andcommercial cases [Wang 2000].18 Since we also expect thicker labor markets in those areas, wepredict lower ψ and more submodular surplus in the SEZ. From Table IV, we see that the export
share subject to foreign ownership/Chinese control is higher in the SEZ, and that the overall
modularity measure is slightly lower, so we obtain support for the hypothesis that human-capital
specificity and contracting costs are lower in SEZs.
Finally, we check whether the modularity of the surplus function depends on whether or
not the final processed good is re-exported through Hong Kong. The share of processing trade
re-exported though Hong Kong has fallen from 55 percent to 44 percent over 1997-2002. Reexports are not simply goods transshipped through Hong Kong; rather, they clear customs inHong Kong where traders grade them according to quality, package and label them, and arrange
for their shipment to consumers [Sung 1991]. As compared to direct exports from China, we19conjecture that Hong Kong firms have a relatively high marginal productivity of investment (B)in export processing activities and relatively low human-capital-specificity or contracting costs(low ψ). From (13), we then expect export processing involving Hong Kong to exhibit more
submodular surplus. This conjecture is confirmed in Table IV, where re-exports through Hong
Kong have modularity of -4.1 as compared to -1.0 for processed goods exported directly from
China.
The discussion in this section has demonstrated interesting cross-sectional differences in
the modularity of the surplus function over sub-samples of the data, which reflects differences in
the ownership/control regimes used in these sub-samples. Our goal in the next section is to use
this variation to identify the parameters of our model, θ and ψ. Before turning to that, we
briefly consider alternative variations to our model described in section III.
One simple alternative model is where contracts are complete, implying that efforts levels
are at their first best. In this case, the choice of organizational form would be dictated bycomparative advantage in input search. With first-best effort levels, so ψ = 0, then ownership ofthe factory is irrelevant (i.e., the two columns of Table II would be identical) and V = 0.19 The
choice would be between the two rows of Table II, depending on which party has lowest
disutility of effort γf or γg. This is clearly contradicted by the data in Tables III and IV. Under
first-best contracts, input search should be done by the party with comparative advantage (lowest
disutility of effort γf or γg), but then ownership of the factory does not matter at all. So thatmodel predicts roughly equal shares across the columns, but higher shares in the row where theparty has with lowest γf or γg. It is therefore impossible to find high exports in the off-diagonalcell with foreign ownership and Chinese control, as actually occurs.

20
At the other extreme, we might suppose that contracts are entirely incomplete, so ψ = 1,
and provincial policy makers in China influence organizational design. Suppose, for instance,that policy makers set the value of the Nash bargaining weight θ, with provincial governments
more in favor of foreign investment choosing higher values and those less in favor of foreign
firms choosing lower values. With ψ = 1, then V > 0 from (12). In this case the incentives forthe manager to make effort investment in processing are very low, so surplus is maximized bychoosing the best efforts in input search, as occurs when the same party has ownership andcontrol and surplus is super-modular. Again, that contradicts our finding than the most likely
outcome is foreign ownership and Chinese control of inputs.

V. Parametric Estimation Results

V.A Multinomial Logit
To apply multinomial logit to our model, we measure welfare for a given
ownership/control regime choice relative to welfare for some base choice, which we select to beW(0,0) (foreign ownership and foreign input control). For convenience, we shall weight welfare
22

by the inverse of σ(A+λB) /γg, where (A+λB) /γg is the (first-best) value-added in the processing
factory, and σ is a parameter related to the variance of the extreme value error.20 The reduced
form of the multinomial logit equations can then be written as:

(16a)

2
⎡ W(1,0) − W(0,0) ⎤
⎛ P ⎞
⎢
⎥
=
−
a
b
⎟ ,
1
1⎜
2
⎝ A + λB ⎠⎢⎣ σ( A + γB) / γ g ⎥⎦

(16b)

2
⎡ W(0,1) − W(0,0) ⎤⎡⎤B2 / γ g
⎛ P ⎞
⎢
⎥
⎢
⎥,
=
−
−
a
b
c
⎜
⎟
2
2
2
2
2
⎝ A + λB ⎠⎢⎣ σ( A + γB) / γ g ⎥⎦⎢⎣ ( A + λB) / γ f ⎥⎦

21

(16c)

2
⎡
⎤
⎡ W(1,1) − W(0,0) ⎤B2 / γ g
⎛ P ⎞
⎢
⎥,
⎢
⎥
a
b
c
=
−
−
⎟
⎜
3
3
3
2
2
⎝ A + λB ⎠⎢⎣ ( A + λB) / γ f ⎥⎦⎢⎣ σ( A + γB) / γ g ⎥⎦where ai, bi and ci are nonlinear functions of the parameters θ , ψ and σ (see the Appendix).
2

The various terms appearing on the right of (16) depend on two ratios: [P/(A+λB)] and22(B /γf)/[(A+λB) /γg]. To interpret these, recall that recall that (A+λB) is the marginal product ofthe manager’s effort e2, while e*2 = ( A + λB) / γ g is the first-best effort level, so that

( A + λB) 2 / γ g would be the labor income received by the manager or value-added in the firstbest. Similarly, if the manager controls the input decision, then P is the marginal product of her
2

effort e1 and e1* = P / γ g is the first-best effort level, so P /γg would be the labor income or value2

added in the search activity. It follows that [P/(A+λB)] is interpreted as the ratio of valueadded in input search relative to processing, or simply the value-added ratio. Similarly,22[(B /γf)/(A+λB) /γg] is the ratio of first-best value-added in marketing the final good relative toprocessing (where the former is done by the foreign firm and the latter by the Chinese manager).
From equation (13), the larger are the returns to input search (i.e., the higher is P), thegreater are the gains from concentrating ownership and control in the hands of one party. Thisimplies the reduced-form coefficients b1 and b2 in (16a) and (16b) should be negative, since theyreflect how an increase in the relative productivity of input search affects the likelihood ofpreferring dispersed to concentrated ownership and control. By the same logic, the coefficient b3
in (16c) is of indeterminate sign. How the productivity of input search affects the likelihood ofgiving either the foreign firm or the factory manager both factory ownership and input control
depends on which party has the lower disutility of effort.

22
We estimate equation (16) using the data on Chinese processing exports by year, 8-digit
HS product, Chinese city, economic zone, destination country, customs regime, and ownershiptype.21 To implement this specification, we need data on the two value-added ratios. We
measure value-added in processing trade within China using an input-output table that differs
across provinces, and we measure the value-added in input search by the markups charged on
goods re-exported from Hong Kong to China (see the Appendix for details). From these two2sources we construct the ratio [P/(A+λB)] , which we refer to as the inbound value-added ratio,
since it depends on effort devoted to bringing inputs into China. It is more difficult to measure
the value-added in marketing the final good, but we attempt to do so using the markup on goods
leaving China and re-exported through Hong Kong. The ratio of this to the value-added in2

2

processing within China is used to (imperfectly) measure (B /γf)/[(A+λB) /γg], which we refer toas the outbound value-added ratio, since it depends on the effort in marketing the final goodexported from China.
Because of the errors involved in estimating the Hong-Kong markup and the input-output
table for processing trade within China, both the value-added ratios are measured at the 1-digit
SITC level rather than the 8-digit HS level, used for the Chinese trade data; these ratios also varyacross years, across provinces (since the processing input-output table differs across provinces),and across destination markets (for the outbound ratio).

V.B Estimation
We turn now to the estimation of the model parameters: ψ, the specificity of humancapital or a measure of contractual incompleteness; and θ, the bargaining weight for foreign

23
firms. 22 The ratio γg/γf also appears in the reduced form coefficients in (16), but we can cannot
reject that hypothesis that γg/γf = 1, and impose this in subsequent estimation.23
In Table V, we report the results from MNL estimation of the three equations in (16).
With six years of data (1999–2002) and thirty Chinese provinces, we can allow parameters todiffer over time and across regions. We adopt a parsimonious specification whereby thecoefficients of the two valued-added ratios on the right of (16) have constant coefficients,
whereas the intercept terms vary across regions and years. In addition, we allow for interaction
terms between the four coastal regions (northern provinces; those around Beijing; those around
Shanghai; and southern provinces) and two time periods 1997-1999 and 2000-2002. The
usefulnessof this fixed-effect specification will be apparent when we discuss the parameter estimates.
In Table V, the sign pattern of the coefficients in the three MNL equations meets our
expectations in most cases. 24 Most importantly, the inbound value-added ratio has a negative
coefficient in estimated equations (16a) and (16b). The variation in the data that identifies thesecoefficients is primarily the province-industry variation in processing value-added. As we havealready seen from the nonparametric results in Table IV, high-value-added industries havegreater exports with dispersed ownership and control, and especially foreign ownership/Chinese
input control. This means there is a higher frequency of observations with (δ1, δ2) = (1,0) when2

value-added (A+λB) is high, leading to a negative coefficient b2 in (16a); similar reasoning
applies to (16b). This effect is particularly pronounced in the coastal provinces, where more
exports have dispersed ownership and control and also higher processing value-added. Thus,
variation in processing value-added at the 1-digit SITC level and across provinces, combined

24with the higher frequency of dispersed ownership and control in high-value-added industries andcoastal regions, identifies the negative coefficients for b1 and b2 in (16a) and (16b).
The intercept a1 in (16a) is identified through the large mass of exports with foreign
ownership and Chinese control, independent of processing value-added. Our inclusion of HongKong and SEZ indicator variables, as well as the regional indicator variables, clearly affects theestimate of this and other intercept terms in Table V and therefore affects the implied structuralparameters. Using the reduced-form estimates from Table V, the implied structural parameters ψand θ can be obtained (see the Appendix), and are reported in Table VI.25
From Table VI, we see that the estimates of ψ, the degree of human-capital specificity,
are highest in Beijing, the Interior and the North, and lowest in the South Coast. Since thisparameter reflects the loss in the return to human-capital investments when bargaining breaks
down, lower values of ψ may indicate a “thicker” labor market and stronger outside options for
the Chinese managers. Just below the estimates of ψ for each time period, we report the range ofthese parameters across regions. Generally, these ranges are reduced in the 2000-02 period ascompared to 1997-1999. These results are suggestive of managerial labor markets that arebecoming more integrated within and across regions over time.
The estimates of ψ also depend on whether the goods are processed in SEZ or not, andwhether they are re-exported through Hong Kong or not. Comparing the estimates in the firsttwo columns of Table VI with those in the second two columns, we see that direct exports haveslightly higher estimates of ψ than do re-exports through Hong-Kong. That is, by not using
Hong-Kong traders to handle processed exports, parties face slightly higher project specificity ofhuman-capital investments (presumably because the Hong Kong traders can help arrange a newmatch). This human-capital specificity is increased further when processing occurs outside of

25
SEZ. An exception to this rule occurs for the South Coast, where the loss in returns to humancapital investments are close to 0.22 (or 22 percent) regardless of whether processing occurs in
SEZ or whether the goods are re-exported through Hong Kong. That estimate of 0.22 for Fujian,Guangdong and Hainan compares with the range 0.28 – 0.51 for the other regions.
We find it highly plausible that human-capital specificity is lowest in the southern coastal
provinces due to the concentration of international commercial activity in the region. To
examine this interpretation, Figure I plots the estimates of ψ in Table VI against each region’sshare of total processing exports, averaged over the time periods 1997-1999 and 2000-2002. A
higher regional share of national export processing activity is one indication of thicker regional
markets. Estimates of ψ are clearly decreasing in the regional processing export share,suggesting that human-capital specificity is lower in regions with more developed exportindustries.
We have also discussed an interpretation of ψ as a measure of the ability of parties tocontract over investments, with lower values of ψ indicating greater ease of contracting. We findit plausible that contracting costs would also be lower in the southern coastal provinces, whichhave a longer history of dealing with foreign investors and stronger commercial institutions.
Figure II plots estimates of ψ against the average time in months needed to resolve commercial
court cases (averaged over cities in each Chinese region). The court data, reported in Dollar, Shi,
Wang, and Xu [2003], are based on a survey of business executives conducted China’s major
cities in 2001. The estimates of ψ are higher in regions in which it takes more time to resolvecommercial disputes. The time needed to resolve court cases is substantially lower in China’s
South Coast, consistent with our lower estimates of ψ in that region.

26
Lastly in Table VI we report the estimate of θ, the Nash bargaining weight for foreign
firms, which is 0.69 (standard error of 0.12) across all regions and time periods. It turns out that
θ depends only on the slope coefficients of the inbound and outbound value-added ratios, so in
our specification it does not vary with region or time period, as does ψ. Our estimate of θ isinsignificantly different from 0.5, which corresponds to simple Nash bargaining.26
In unreported estimation exercises, we have examined the plausibility of alternative
hypotheses for parties’ ownership and control decisions. One hypothesis, discussed at the end ofsection IV, involves complete contracts (ψ = 0), in which the choice of organizational form isdictated by comparative advantage in input search. To obtain an empirical specification for thismodel, we re-derive equation (16) with investments set at first-best levels, which produces analternative set of estimating equations.27 The key parameter in the ownership/control choicebecomes the relative disutility of effort, γg/γf. To further enrich the model we allow the disutilityof effort to vary across industrial sectors. If we imagine that foreign firms have a stronger
comparative advantage in more capital-intensive sectors, then γg/γf will be increasing in capitalintensity such that the parties will be less likely to give the Chinese factory manager input
control in more capital-intensive industries. In unreported regressions, we reject the parameter
restrictions implied by the comparative-advantage model and find that the estimated value ofγg/γf is lower, rather than higher, in more capital-intensive industries. Consistent with the resultsin Table IV, the estimation yields little evidence that comparative advantage in input search canaccount for organization structure in the Chinese export processing industry.28

VI. Conclusions

27
This paper reports a new empirical finding: that the allocation of ownership and control
in China’s export processing tends to be shared between foreign and local parties, with foreign
firms likely to have ownership of the Chinese plant, but the Chinese parties having control over
input-purchase decisions. A goal of our paper has been to reconcile this finding with available
theories of the ownership/control structure within a firm. We have drawn on the property-rights
model due to Grossman and Hart [1986] and Hart and Moore [1990], while also allowing forresults in the spirit of the Holmstrom-Milgrom incentive-systems framework.
In our model, giving the same party ownership and control is optimal when investment
specificity is high or when value added in processing activities is low. In either case, there are
relatively large gains to giving one party strong investment incentives in searching for inputs.
Consistent with this prediction, concentrated ownership and control is more common in interior
and northern provinces of China, where export markets are thin and the costs of using courts arehigh (either of which imply high investment specificity).
The more common arrangement of divided ownership and control is more likely to be
optimal when investment specificity is low, such that hold-up costs are small. Southern coastal
provinces, with their thick export markets and relatively efficient courts, are where thisarrangement is most common. Divided ownership and control is also more likely where bothparties’ investments matter to the value of the project. Following PR logic, giving the foreign
firm factory ownership improves its outside options and strengthens its investment incentives.
In a similar manner, granting the Chinese factory manager control over input purchases enhances
her outside options and investment incentives. Thus, divided ownership and control makes sensewhen it is optimal to provide balanced investment incentives to the two parties, as is the casewhere value added in processing activities is high. In the data, foreign factory ownership and28
Chinese input control is more common in high-value-added office machines than in low-valueadded apparel. This finding is in line with Hart and Moore [1990], who show that disintegrated
ownership (giving each party ownership of an asset) is optimal where both parties makeinvestments that are important to the value of the relationship. Our contribution is to suggest that
control over input decisions, by affecting parties’ outside options, provides an additional
instrument through which parties can influence investment incentives.
There are a variety of other contexts in which our framework may be relevant. One is,
obviously, export processing in other countries. In the last two decades, export processing has
grown rapidly throughout the developing world [Yeats 2001]. As suggested in the introduction,
there appears to be a great deal of variation in how multinational companies organize export
processing: Nike (like Dell) controls input purchases but rarely owns production facilities;
Plantronics (the leading global producer of headsets) owns factories but cedes control over input
purchases to factory managers; and Samsung (like Intel) tends to retain both factory ownershipand input control. A related form of outsourcing occurs in services. In a recent development,
U.S. companies are designing software and hiring firms in India to write the code. By retaining
the copyright on the software, U.S. firms control the key “input” in production, and by owning
the facility in which the code is written, Indian firms own the “factory” in which the software is
produced. This is another example of divided factory ownership and input control, though one inwhich the roles of the foreign and local parties are reversed from the Chinese case. An importantquestion for further research is to see how contracting costs, factor intensity, and other featuresof production and exchange affect organizational choices in these settings.

29
Data Appendix

A. Chinese Trade Data
Chinese import and export data are from the Customs General Administration of the People’s
Republic of China (China. Customs General Administration, Statistics Department. "China
Trade Information." Hong Kong: Economic Information Agency, 1981- 2003.) These data arepurchased from Mr. George Chen, China Customs Statistics Information Center, Economic
Information Agency, Hong Kong; EIAET@PACIFIC.NET.HK . Note that only the data in 1997
and later years distinguish the pure-assembly regime from the import-and-assembly regime inprocessing trade.29

B. Estimating Value-Added in Chinese Export Processing
To construct the value-added ratios used in the multinomial logit estimation, we need estimatesof value-added in Chinese processing exports. An initial measure is obtained as the difference
between the value of processing exports and processing imports (relative to processing exports),
which is 36 percent over all products and years, 1997-2002. In order to obtain the value-addedfor particular products and provinces, we estimated an input-output table between SITC
industries for processing trade at the provincial level. Details are provided in the Appendix
available on our home pages.
The industries with the greatest processing exports are SITC 6 (manufactured goods), 7(machinery and transport equipment) and 8 (miscellaneous manufactured goods). We estimate
relatively low value-added of 16 percent in SITC 6 and 8, and higher value-added of 55 percent
in SITC 7. As described by Yeats (2001), SITC 7 includes a number of individual products andtheir parts, such as: automobiles and their parts; computers and their parts; various types of30
machinery and their parts; etc. So as a rough check on our value-added estimate of 55 percent
from the input-output table, we can compare this to value of processing exports and processing
imports (relative to processing exports), obtaining 50 percent. This is quite close to our inputoutput estimate of 55 percent for this industry, giving us confidence in the estimated input-output
table.

C. Measurement of Hong Kong Markups
For the multinomial estimation we also need estimates of the value-added in marketing, and forthis purpose we use the Hong Kong markups on various 1-digit SITC goods, by destination
country. The measurement of these Hong Kong markups is discussed in Feenstra et al [1999],
and is based on a comparison of unit-values for Hong Kong imports and re-exports ofdisaggregate commodities (at the 8-digit HS level). This comparison is complicated, however,
because when a good is imported into Hong Kong, it is not known whether it is intended for thedomestic market or for re-export to some destination market. So comparing the import unitvalue to the unit-value for re-exports involves some error, and sometimes the computed Hong
Kong markups can be negative rather than positive. When averaging across the 8-digit HS
products to the 1-digit SITC level, in most cases the negative values disappear. But in cases
where we still obtain negative markups for the 1-digit SITC categories, these products areomitted from the calculation of the value-added ratios and from the multinomial logit estimation.

University of California, Davis, and National Bureau of Economic Research
University of California, San Diego, and National Bureau of Economic Research31
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Notes

1. See Markusen [2002] and Markusen and Maskus [2003] for surveys.
2. For early work on firm boundaries in international trade, see Ethier and Markusen[1996] and McLaren [2000].
3. Our emphasis on how ownership depends on the intensity of different stages in
production is consistent with the Antrás-Helpman [2004] model of outsourcing.
4. See Rauch [1999] and Rauch and Casella [2000] on networks and information costs ininternational trade.
5. For surveys of the theoretical literature, see Hart [1995] and Tirole [1999] and forsurveys of the empirical literature, see Baker and Hubbard [2001] and Whinston [2001].
6. See Hanson [1995] for a test of an extended PR model.
7. The contract must specify the materials (and any equipment) to be imported, theprocessing activities to be performed, the fees to be paid, and the ports of entry and exit, among
other items. See “Regulations Concerning Customs Supervision and Control over the Inward
Processing and Assembling Operation (Amended),” Customs General Administration, October 5,
1990, http://www.moftec.gov.cn.
8. See “Measures on the Administration of the Customs of the People’s Republic ofChina for Bonded Warehouse Factory Engaged in Processing Trade,” Customs General
Administration, April 6, 1988, http://www.moftec.gov.cn.
9. An example of this interaction, taken from Grossman and Helpman [2004], is when
the project is “successful” (leading to positive sales) with some probability that is increasing in
e2 .
10. That is, even if all parties were paid their first-best, there would still be additional
profits of (B-A-P) > 0 to be allocated. Therefore, not matter how close to first-best are the statusquo payoffs, the parties will want to Nash bargain over the outsourcing project so that these
additional profits are allocated.
11. More precisely, when W is supermodular then changes in exogenous parameters tend
to increase the optimal ownership and control regimes in the same direction: if the optimal δ1
increases from 0 to 1, this will lower the opportunity cost of also increasing δ2 from 0 to 1. This
follows from the results in Holmstrom and Milgrom [1994], whereby a strictly supermodular
function that is differentiable has a positive cross-derivative, ∂ 2 W / ∂δ1∂δ 2 > 0 .
12. The source for these data is provided in the Appendix.
13. In our data 82.7 percent of observations have positive exports in one
ownership/control regime, 13.4 percent have positive exports in two regimes, 3.4 percent havepositive exports in three regimes, and 0.5 percent have positive exports in four regimes.
14. A stochastic specification of this type is suggested by Whinston [2001].
15. Standard errors for the modularity measures in Tables III and IV are obtained usingbootstrap methods.
16. Using the 1-digit Standard Industrial Trade Classification (SITC), the coastal
provinces have roughly equal processing exports within SITC 7 (which includes office machines
and electrical machinery) and outside of SITC 7, whereas the interior provinces have four times
more exports outside of SITC 7, and especially within SITC 8 (which includes apparel, footwear,
and toys).

36

17. The complete matrices of export shares are reported in Feenstra and Hanson [2004].
18. Advantages to being in a zone may include expedited treatment by customs ofimported inputs and exported outputs, greater opportunities to retain foreign exchange earnings,
and access to various types of tax incentives. SEZs and related economic zones are managed byprovincial governments and so may exhibit regional variation in their organization andeffectiveness [Demurger et al. 2002].
19. Notice that complete contracts, with ψ = 0, is not nested within our model of section
III, because we then also need to dispense with assumption (A.3). Under complete contracts, allefforts are at their first-best levels, so e1* = max{P/γf, P/γg} e*2 = (A+λB)/γg, and e*3 = B/γf. Thenthe two columns of Table II are identical, so that V=0.
20. The variance of an extreme-value distribution is µ2π2/6 [Anderson, De Palma andThisse 1992, p. 40], whereas the MNL specification in (14) assumes that the variance is π2/6, sothat µ = 1. Our assumption is that the variance parameter µ equals σ(A+λB)2/γg, so that bydividing each observation by this, we effectively obtain µ = 1.
21. As discussed in note 13, some observations (for a Chinese city, type of economic
zone, product, and destination market) have more than one positive choice of ownership/control
regime. In this case, we can presume this means that more than one factory was operating in thatcity, product, etc. In the multinomial logit estimation, we split such an observation into two or
more observations, corresponding to the ownership/control regimes of each type of factory.
Disaggregating the trade data in this way, we obtain a standard multinomial logit dataset (with aunique ownership/control choice for each observation).
22. We apply bootstrap methods to obtain standard errors for the structural parameter
estimates reported in this section.
23. Because we do not accurately measure the ratio (B2/γf)/[(A+λB)2/γg] appearing in(16b) and (16c), we do not expect to identify those coefficients or the intercepts in thoseequations. So we rely on the single intercept term of (16a), together with the three coefficientsof [P/(A+λB)]2, to measure the four parameters σ, θ, ψ, and (γg/γf). The coefficient b3 =[(γg/γf) –1]/σ is insignificantly different from zero, from which we conclude that (γg/γf)=1, and then we
use the remaining coefficients a1, b1 and b2 to solve for σ, θ, ψ. See the Appendix for details.
24. The outbound value-added ratio does not appear at all in (16a), and its estimatedcoefficient in Table V is very small. However, the coefficients on the outbound value-added
ratio in (16b) and (16c) are predicted to be negative (see the Appendix), whereas in Table V they
are positive. We do not use these estimates, however, because of the error in estimating theoutbound value-added ratio; see note 19.
25. We compute standard errors by bootstrapping the regression with 100 replications.
26. In unreported results, we re-estimated (16) applying two alternative methods tocompute the markups used to construct the value added ratios [Feenstra and Hanson 2004].
These results are very similar to those in Table VI.
27. This specification differs from (16) in that the inbound value-added ratio does notappear in the second equation and the outbound value added ratio appears in no equation.
28. The second alternative model from section IV involved entirely incomplete contracts(ψ=1), in which provincial policy makers influenced organizational design by affecting the valueof the Nash bargaining weight, θ. In further unreported results, we re-estimated (16), setting
ψ=1 and allowing θ to vary across provinces according to their observed policies towards foreign

37

investment, using the index from Demurger et al. [2002]. Inconsistent with the policypreference model, estimated values of θ were not higher in provinces with more friendly
investment policies. Forcing the human-capital specificity parameter, ψ, to equal unity yields
estimates of θ that are undefined.
29. In Chinese trade statistics, the pure-assembly arrangement is called “processing andassembling” or “processing with supplied materials,” and the import-and-assembly arrangement
is called “processing with imported materials.”

38
Table I: Foreign Ownership, Export Processing, and Trade in China

Year

Processing
exports/
Total
exports

FIE
exports/
Total
exports

1997

0.545

0.361

0.704

0.561

1998

0.568

0.393

0.705

0.587

1999

0.568

0.413

0.677

0.609

2000

0.552

0.439

0.701

0.646

2001

0.554

0.462

0.714

0.669

2002

0.550

0.484

0.741

0.697

Share in total processing exports ofImport-andassembly
FIE exports

Columns (1) and (2) show processing exports and exports by foreign-invested enterprises,
respectively, as a share of total China exports; columns (3)-(4) show as a share of total
China processing exports, processing exports under the import-and-assembly regime, andprocessing exports by foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs). Source: Chinese export datafrom the Customs General Administration of the People’s Republic of China.

39

Table II: Optimal Effort Levels

Controlof theInputsOwnership of the Factoryδ2 = 0, Foreign firm f owns

δ2 = 1, Chinese manager g owns

e1= [1 − (1 − θ)ψ ]P / γ f

δ1 = 0,e1 = P/γf

Foreign firm

e2 = (1 − θ)(A + λB) / γ g

e2 = [ A + (1 − θψ )λB] / γ gf controls inputs

e3 = B/γfe3 = [1 − (1 − θ)ψ ]B / γ f

δ1 = 1,e1= (1 − θψ ) P / γ g

e1 = P/γg (first-best for g)

Chinese manager

e2= (1 − θψ )( A + λB) / γ g

e2 = [ A + (1 − θψ )λB] / γ gg controls inputs

e3 = B/γfe3 = [1 − (1 − θ)ψ ]B / γ f(first-best for f)(first-best)(first-best)

40

Table III: Processing Exports by Input Control and Factory Ownership Regime

Control over inputs:

Foreign buyer(pure-assembly)

Chinese factory(import-and-assembly)
Modularity

All provinces
Ownership of factory:
Foreign
ChineseS(0,0)
S(0,1)
0.083
0.271(0.001)(0.003)

S(1,0)
0.496(0.003)

S(1,1)
0.146(0.002)-2.417(0.026)

Interior and northern provinces
Ownership of factory:
Foreign
ChineseS(0,0)
S(0,1)
0.177
0.110(0.007)(0.004)

S(1,0)
0.416(0.011)S(1,1)
0.297(0.009)0.141(0.064)This table shows: (i) mean shares of Chinese processing exports by factory ownership(foreign versus Chinese) and input-control regime (pure-assembly versus import-andassembly); (ii) modularity, defined by V = [lnS(0,0)+lnS(1,1)] – [lnS(1,0)+lnS(0,1)]. The
first two columns show results for all provinces; the second two columns show results forinterior and northern provinces (i.e. excluding Shanghai, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong,and Hainan). Standard errors for mean shares (in parentheses) are computed overobservations by year, industry, destination country, origin province, and trade zone status,
while standard errors for the modularity measure are obtained by bootstrapping with 100
replications.

41

Table IV: Modularity of the Surplus Function for Sub-samples

Industries

ApparelOffice Machines

Location

Inside SEZ
Outside SEZ

Trade Route

Through Hong Kong
Export directly

Export Share in
Chinese control
and foreign
ownership
0.302(0.003)0.693(0.016)Modularity-0.716(0.020)-4.265(0.223)0.745(0.006)0.442(0.003)-1.967(0.069)-2.367(0.025)0.490(0.004)0.504(0.005)-4.142(0.040)-0.984(0.031)This table shows for various sub-samples of the data: (i) mean shares of processing
exports subject to Chinese control of inputs (import-and-assembly regime) and foreign
ownership, (ii) modularity, defined by V = [lnS(0,0)+lnS(1,1)] – [lnS(1,0)+lnS(0,1)].
Standard errors for mean shares (in parentheses) are computed over observations by year,
industry, destination country, origin province, and trade zone status, while standard errors
for the modularity measure are obtained by bootstrapping with 100 replications.

42
Table V: MNL Estimates of the Property Rights Model
Foreign ownership& Chinese control

Chinese ownership &foreign control

Chinese ownership& Chinese control

Equation (16a)Equation (16b)

Equation (16c)Intercept(Year = 2002)

0.74(0.15)-0.47(0.16)

1.24(0.14)

Inboundvalue-added ratio-0.34(0.054)-0.036(0.072)-0.17(0.050)Outboundvalue-added ratio-0.007(0.014)0.013(0.021)

0.035(0.017)

Years:

1997-99

2000-02

1997-99

2000-02

1997-99

2000-02

Hong-Kong-0.061(0.20)

0.24(0.15)

0.16(0.23)

0.59(0.16)

0.001(0.22)

0.26(0.16)

SEZ-0.21(0.15)

0.47(0.11)

0.19(0.31)-0.90(0.20)

0.12(0.24)-0.48(0.16)

North coast

0.32(0.21)-0.18(0.16)-0.25(0.24)-0.018(0.15)

0.54(0.24)-1.53(0.18)

Beijing area

0.11
(0.20)-0.21(0.15)-0.12(0.20)-0.040(0.12)

0.32(0.22)-1.18(0.16)

Shanghai area

-0.14
(0.19)

0.57(0.14)-0.56(0.22)

0.72(0.12)

0.027(0.20)-0.48(0.14)South coast

0.75(0.29)

1.94(0.20)

0.25(0.37)

2.42(0.24)

1.10(0.30)-0.14(0.21)

N = 1,118,883, across 8-digit harmonized system (HS) products, provinces, years, and destination
markets. Each column shows the estimates for choosing an ownership/control regime relative to
foreign ownership and foreign control of inputs. The inbound (outbound) value-added ratio
equals the markup on Hong Kong re-exports entering (leaving) China, divided by the value-addedin processing trade within China. These ratios are measured at the 1-digit SITC industry rather
than 8-digit HS product, so the standard errors (in parentheses) are corrected for correlation oferrors across observations in the same one-digit industry and year. The variable SEZ equals one
if the HS products are produced in a Special Economic Zone (including high-technology
development zones), and Hong-Kong equals one if the good is re-exported through Hong Kong.
All regressions include indicator variables for the year (with 2002 excluded). The northern coast
consists of Heilongjiang, Jilin and Lioning; the area around Beijing includes Beijing/Tianjin,

43
Hebei and Shandong; the area around Shanghai includes Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejing; and thesouthern coastal provinces consist of Fujian, Guangdong, and Hainan Island.

Table VI: Parameter EstimatesψRegion:Interior

North coast
Beijing area
Shanghai area
South coast
Range

θ

Any region

SEZ,
HK Re-exports
1997-99 2000-02

SEZ,
Direct exports
1997-99 2000-02

No SEZ,
Direct exports
1997-99 2000-02

0.38(0.05)
0.36(0.05)
0.40(0.06)
0.33(0.04)
0.21(0.03)
0.19

0.33(0.04)
0.34(0.04)
0.35(0.04)
0.28(0.03)
0.22(0.03)
0.13

0.41(0.06)
0.39(0.05)
0.43(0.06)
0.34(0.04)
0.21(0.03)
0.22

0.35(0.04)
0.38(0.04)
0.38(0.05)
0.30(0.03)
0.23(0.03)
0.15

0.48(0.06)
0.44(0.05)
0.51(0.06)
0.38(0.04)
0.22(0.03)
0.29

0.43(0.05)
0.48(0.06)
0.50(0.07)
0.34(0.04)
0.24(0.03)
0.26

0.69(0.12)

0.69(0.12)

0.69(0.12)

0.69(0.12)

0.69(0.12)

0.69(0.12)

Parameters estimates are calculated from the coefficients in Table 6 and equation (16).
The parameter ψ is the degree of human-capital specificity, and θ is bargaining weight of
the foreign firm. Standard errors are obtained by bootstrapping (16) using 100
replications. The range indicates the difference between the maximum and minimum
estimates across regions.

44
SEZ, Hong Kong
SEZ, Direct

No SEZ, Direct.7

Estimate of Psi

.6

.5

.4

.3
0

.2
.4
Region Share of Processing Exports

Figure I: Human-Capital Specificity (ψ) and Regional Export Activity

.6

45

SEZ Hong Kong 1997-99
SEZ Hong Kong 2000-02

SEZ Direct 1997-99
SEZ Direct 2000-02

Estimate of Psi

.6

.5

.4

.3
7

7.5
8
8.5
Average Time to Resolve Court Cases (months)

Figure II: Human-Capital Specificity (ψ) and Court Costs

9