Contact Information
118 Skinner Hall
kschmeis@mtholyoke.edu
Phone: 413.538.2752
Fax: 413.538.2323
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/~kschmeis

Past Courses

Publications

"Learning to Export: Export Growth and the Destination Decision of Firms" Forthcoming, Journal of International Economics (abstract) (paper) I find evidence that the geographic expansion of firm exports occurs slowly over time and that a large share of export growth is due to incumbent exporters entering new destinations. New exporters enter large countries and destinations with characteristics similar to their domestic market. Less similar, distant or less developed countries are entered by firms already exporting to other destinations. I formulate a dynamic general equilibrium model to test if these patterns are due to firms learning how to export (as other recent empirical findings have suggested) or other factors considered in the literature. In this model, heterogeneous firms experience learning in the form of market entry costs that depend on export history. Using Russian firm level data, I find that learning plays a significant role in explaining the observed entry patterns, which standard trade models cannot account for.

"Tradability and market penetration costs: explaining foreign market servicing intensities" with Miguel Ricaurte (Central Bank of Chile) Forthcoming, International Review of Economics & Finance Volume 22, Issue 1, April 2012, Pages 190-200 (abstract) (paper) Industry level data shows striking differences among sectors in ratios of exports to FDI sales. We identify the elements behind the sectoral differences in the mode of foreign market servicing in the context of a general equilibrium model of monopolistic competition. Our calibration exercise shows that traditional margins such as transportation, fixed entry costs, utility weights, and dispersion of firm productivity are not enough to capture the observed sectoral differences, as is commonly assumed. We propose augmenting the model to allow for sectoral differences in intangible costs of operating in a foreign market in order to explain these observations.

Working Papers

"The Agglomeration of Exporters by Destination" with Andrew Cassey (Washington State University) (abstract) Precise characterization of informational trade barriers is neither well documented nor understood. Using Russian customs data, we find exporting firms agglomerate geographically with respect to their shipment's destination in addition to agglomeration around ports, suggesting behavior responding to a trade barrier. To account for this fact, we build on Melitz (2003) and Chaney (2008) by postulating an externality in the international shipping of goods. We test the model's prediction on region- and state-level exports using Russian and U.S. data. Our model accounts for up to 40% more of the variation than in gravity-type models without agglomeration.

"Multilateral Export Decompositions" with Andrew Cassey (Washington State University) (abstract) We compare readily available sectoral export data with hard-to-obtain firm-level export data along six dimensions such as value and the number of destination countries. We find the product data qualitatively matches the firm-level data, but not quantitively, particularly on dynamics. This is due to the categorization of products. However, product data can be used to establish a lower estimate for firm-level data. Based on this result, we analyze exports cut into five shares such as newly exported products, products removed from the export market, and continuing products exported to new and same destinations. We find these export shares differ for developing and developed countries, in particular on the importance of new products and continuously exported products to new destinations. Also, there are many continuing products whose removal from individual destinations cause little loss to aggregate export value.

Education

Ph.D. in Economics, University of Minnesota (2009)

B.S. in Economics, Montana State University (2003)

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