“格致·博雅”青年学者论坛（第十八期）

讲座主题：Signaling and Quality Upgrading: Evidence from E-commerce Certification in China

主讲嘉宾：高恺琳，对外经济贸易大学国际经济贸易学院讲师，北京大学经济学博士，耶鲁大学访问学者

时    间：2023年10月18日（周三）16:30-18:00

地    点：中央财经大学沙河校区二教112

主 持 人：钟腾龙 副教授 国际贸易系主任

点 评 人：段玉婉 副教授 副院长；刘悦 副教授；张龙天 助理教授

主    办：中央财经大学国际经济与贸易学院

讲座内容：

E-commerce certification can signal a firm's quality, reducing information frictions and incentivizing quality upgrading. This paper examines the effect of certification on quality upgrading both econometrically and using a novel dynamic structural model. To this end, we collected data from Alibaba.com, one of the world's largest global Business-to-Business platforms, which launched its certification policy, "Gold Supplier," in 2000. We posit that signaling as a Gold Supplier is more costly for lower-quality firms. Combining Alibaba.com data with 2000–2015 Chinese Customs Data, we show that firm export quality increases after becoming a Gold Supplier and the effect is greater for smaller firms. Using the Simulated Method of Moments, we estimate a dynamic structural model that embeds information asymmetry, signaling, and quality upgrading. Counterfactual analysis shows that a 1% reduction in the differential cost of signaling increases total trade by 1.50% and that substantial changes in signaling costs can shift the market equilibrium.

嘉宾简介：

高恺琳，对外经济贸易大学国际经济贸易学院讲师，北京大学经济学博士，耶鲁大学访问学者。研究兴趣为数字经济、国际贸易与国际投资。研究成果发表在《经济研究》、《管理世界》、《经济学（季刊）》、China & World Economy等期刊，主持国家自然科学基金青年项目，研究成果入选《世界经济年鉴》国际投资学2021年最佳中文论文TOP10。