中文摘要：

国际食品市场上产品间的竞争正从价格竞争转向质量竞争,企业融资约束对于企业出口产品质量选择的影响在国际经济研究中日益受到关注。利用2000-2010年中国工业企业数据库和海关贸易数据库中的食品企业数据,实证研究融资约束对食品企业出口产品质量升级的影响。结果显示：首先,从食品行业整体来看,融资约束显著抑制了中国食品企业出口产品质量升级,且在融资约束程度相同情况下,接近出口产品质量前沿的企业受到的抑制效应显著强于远离质量前沿的企业。其次,融资约束的质量升级抑制效应在异质性企业间存在显著差异。分地区来看,融资约束会显著抑制东部地区食品企业出口产品质量升级,但不会对中西部地区食品企业的出口产品质量升级产生显著抑制作用;分所有制来看,融资约束对私营和外资食品企业出口产品质量升级制约效应的显著性高于国有企业,且私营企业受到的抑制作用最高。此外,通过构建融资约束、产品质量和质量升级的不同代理变量,进一步验证了研究结论的稳健性。

英文摘要：

Firms＇ financial constraints are increasing recognized as crucial determinants of export product quality in the international trade literature. This paper uses China＇s agri-food firm-level data from Chinese enterprises database and customs trade statistics over the period of 2000-2010 to analyze the extent to which the financial constraints faced by an agri-food firm affect the quality upgrading of its exported products. The results reveal that,firstly,financial constraints have significantly negative effects on the quality upgrading of exported product,with firms that initially close to the quality frontier being more unlikely to upgrade quality than the firms further away from the frontier in response to an increase in financial constraints. Secondly,the estimation of sub-sample shows that the financial constraints have asymmetric impacts on the quality upgrading of exported products： strong negative impacts on Eastern firms,while no significant impacts on Central and Western firms; strong negative impacts on private and foreign-owned firms,while less robust impacts on state-owned firms. Finally,the results remain consistent even after accounting for other measures we use to proxy for financial constraints,product quality and quality upgrading.