Industrial Organization and Product Quality: Evidence from South Korean and Taiwanese Exports

Abstract

The central focus of this paper is on the relationship between domestic market structure and export performance. It evaluates the hypothesis that more concentrated industrial sectors can achieve more easily the transition from standardized, labor-intensive manufactures to sophisticated, skill intensive products, as such industries are better able to cope with the inevitable reputational externalities involved in producing high-quality goods for foreign markets. South Korea and Taiwan provide a good test of the theory, as they have sharply different market structures. The results of the empirical analysis provide strong support for the hypothesis.