Presenter: Ran Jing

Topic: From Beijing to Bentonville: Do Multinational Retailers Link Markets?

Time: 16:00-17:30, May 14th, 2013

Location: 608 Acedamic Hall

Abstract Four of the top five largest retailers in the world-Walmart, Carrefour, Tesco, and Metro-all entered China after 1995. Their subsequent expansion in China may have influenced Chinese exports through two channels. First, they may have enhanced bilateral exports between the retailers' Chinese operations and destination countries also served by stores in the retailers' networks. Second, Chinese city-level exports to all destinations may have grown if multinational retailer presence enhanced the general export capabilities of local suppliers. Evidence from Chinese city-level retail goods exports supports the capability hypothesis as the expansion of Chinese city exports follows the geographic expansion of the retailers' Chinese stores and global procurement centers.