Google and China's Trade

Hu, Cui and Li, Ben G. (2025): Google and China's Trade.

Abstract

Although Google is blocked in China, Chinese provinces export significantly more to foreign countries that recently searched for them (up to 12 months prior). This attention premium is found mainly at the extensive margin of exports, larger in products that are relatively homogeneous, substitutable, and upstream in the production process, and more pronounced during the COVID pandemic and during the holiday season. The attention premium is not found for Chinese imports from the rest of the world. Our findings attest to online attention as a scarce resource in international trade allocated by importers.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Trade, information frictions, scarce attention, internet censorship
• Subjects: D - Microeconomics > D8 - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty > D83 - Search ; Learning ; Information and Knowledge ; Communication ; Belief ; Unawareness; F - International Economics > F1 - Trade > F14 - Empirical Studies of Trade

References

See the pdf.