Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Germany’s trade in goods

A survey of the evidence from transaction data

  • Originalveröffentlichung
  • Published:
AStA Wirtschafts- und Sozialstatistisches Archiv Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Recently, new data on international trade in goods by German firms became available that are based on transaction level data collected by the customs (for trade with partners outside the European Union) or reported by the firms when trading with partners inside the EU (for the statistics on intra-EU trade). The data cover detailed information on the goods traded, its value, its weight, and the country of destination (for exports) or origin (for imports). In short, the data do not only show “who trades and how much”, but also “who trades how much of which goods of which value and which weight with firms from which countries”. Furthermore, this information is available not only for firms from manufacturing industries, but for firms from all parts of the economy. Transaction level data that include information on the German firm involved in the transaction have been prepared by the Federal Statistical Office for the reporting years 2009 onwards. These data have been used in a number of studies that shed light on various aspects of Germany’s trade in goods for the first time. This survey summarizes what we have learnt from these studies.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. See Wagner (2016g) for a survey of the international literature that uses transaction level data on exports and imports of goods.

  2. Note that firms with a value of exports to and imports from EU-countries that did not exceed 400,000 € in the previous year or in the current year do not have to report to the statistic on intra-EU trade. For trade with firms from non-member countries all transactions that exceed 1000 € (or have a weight that exceeds 1000 kg) are registered. For details see Statistisches Bundesamt, Qualitätsbericht Außenhandel, Januar 2011.

  3. This has been confirmed by Melanie Scheller from the Federal Statistical Office in a mail sent on May 20, 2015.

  4. Note that this identifier is missing for 0.67% of all export transactions and 1.2% of all import transactions for various reasons including that traders do not have a (German) tax identification number. Further details were not revealed to me.

  5. For a discussion of the legal aspects of linking firm level micro data in Germany, available linked data sets and the potential of these data for economic analyses see Wagner (2017f).

  6. An appendix table with a tabular survey of 32 papers that cover this literature is available on request. To facilitate comparison of results for Germany with results from similar studies that use data from other countries most of the topics discussed here are identical to those trated in my earlier survey of the international literature based on transaction level data in Wagner (2016g).

  7. For evidence on the concentration of exports and imports in the largest trading firms see also the report on the Exporter and Importer Dynamics Database for Germany in Wagner (2016c).

  8. Note that West German firms outperform East German firms at all four margins of exports in 2010, 20 years after the re-unification of Germany: West German firms have a larger propensity to export, export a larger share of total sales, export more goods and export to a larger number of countries. For a comprehensive analysis of the differences in export activities of firms in West Germany and East Germany see Wagner (2016a).

  9. Information on exports is part of the World Bank’s Exporter Dynamics Database that has strictly comparable information for 70 countries; see http://econ.worldbank.org/exporter-dynamics-database.

  10. For a comparable study on German exports (that is not based on transaction data but on data collected in regular surveys by official statistics) see Wagner (2013d).

  11. For a report on the project KombiFiD (an acronym for Kombinierte Firmendaten für Deutschland, or combined firm data for Germany) that proceeded in this way see Biewen et al. (2012).

References

  • Bernard AB, Redding SJ, Schott PK (2011) Multiproduct firms and trade liberalization. Q J Econ 126(3):1271–1318

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Biewen E, Gruhl A, Gürke C, Hethey-Maier T, Weiß E (2012) “Combined firm data for Germany”—possibilities and consequences of merging firm data from different data producers. Schmollers Jahrb J Appl Soc Sci Stud 132(3):361–377

    Google Scholar 

  • Engelter M, Sommer K (2016) Die Novellierung des Bundesstatistikgesetzes 2016. Wirtsch Stat 6:11–19

    Google Scholar 

  • Feenstra RC, Romalis J (2014) International prices and endogenous quality. Q J Econ 129(2):477–527

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gabaix X (2011) The granular origins of aggregate fluctuations. Econometrica 79(3):733–772

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Raff H, Wagner J (2014) Foreign ownership and the extensive margins of exports: evidence for manufacturing enterprises in Germany. World Econ 37(5):579–591

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Verardi V, Wagner J (2012) Productivity premia for German manufacturing firms exporting to the Euro-area and beyond: first evidence from robust fixed effects estimations. World Econ 35(6):694–712

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vogel A, Wagner J (2010) Higher productivity in importing German manufacturing firms: self-selection, learning from importing, or both? Rev World Econ 145(4):641–665

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wagner J (2007a) Productivity and size of the export market. Evidence for west and east German plants, 2004. Jahrb Nationalökon Stat J Econ Stat 227(4):403–408

    Google Scholar 

  • Wagner J (2007b) Exports and productivity: a survey of the evidence from firm-level data. World Econ 30(1):60–82

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wagner J (2011a) Exports and firm characteristics in Germany: a survey of empirical studies (1991 to 2011). Appl Econ Q 57(2):145–160

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wagner J (2011b) Exports and firm characteristics in German manufacturing industries: new evidence from representative panel data. Appl Econ Q 57(2):107–143

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wagner J (2012a) German multiple-product, multiple destination exporters: Bernard-Redding-Schott under test. Econ Bull 32(2):1708–1714

    Google Scholar 

  • Wagner J (2012b) Trading many goods with many countries: exporters and importers from German manufacturing industries. Rev Econ 63(2):170–186

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wagner J (2012c) Productivity and the extensive margins of trade in German manufacturing firms: evidence from a non-parametric test. Econ Bull 32(4):3061–3070

    Google Scholar 

  • Wagner J (2012d) Exports, imports and profitability: first evidence for manufacturing enterprises. Open Econ Rev 23(5):747–765

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wagner J (2013a) Are low-productive exporters marginal exporters? Evidence from Germany. Econ Bull 33(1):467–481

    Google Scholar 

  • Wagner J (2013b) Extensive margins of imports in the great import recovery in Germany, 2009/2010. Econ Bull 33(4):2732–2743

    Google Scholar 

  • Wagner J (2013c) Exports, imports and firm survival: first evidence for manufacturing enterprises in Germany. Rev World Econ 149(1):113–130

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wagner J (2013d) The granular nature of the great export collapse in German manufacturing industries, 2008/2009. Economics 7(2013–5):1–21

    Google Scholar 

  • Wagner J (2014a) Low-productive exporters are high-quality exporters. Evidence from Germany. Econ Bull 34(2):745–756

    Google Scholar 

  • Wagner J (2014b) What makes a high-quality exporter? Evidence from Germany. Econ Bull 34(2):865–874

    Google Scholar 

  • Wagner J (2014c) The role of extensive margins of exports in the great export recovery in Germany, 2009/2010. Jahrb Nationalökon J Stat Econ Stat 234(4):518–526

    Google Scholar 

  • Wagner J (2014d) Exports and firm profitability: quality matters! Econ Bull 34(3):1644–1652

    Google Scholar 

  • Wagner J (2014e) Extensive margins of imports, productivity and profitability: first evidence for manufacturing enterprises in Germany. Econ Bull 34(3):1669–1678

    Google Scholar 

  • Wagner J (2014f) Is export diversification good for profitability? First evidence for manufacturing enterprises in Germany. Appl Econ 46(33):4083–4090

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wagner J (2014g) A note on the granular nature of imports in German manufacturing industries. Rev Econ 65(3):241–252

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wagner J (2014h) Credit constraints and exports: a survey of empirical studies using firm-level data. Ind Corp Chang 33(6):1477–1492

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wagner J (2015a) Credit constraints and margins of import: first evidence for German manufacturing enterprises. Appl Econ 47(5):415–430

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wagner J (2015b) A note on firm age and the margins of imports: first evidence from Germany. Appl Econ Lett 22(9):679–682

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wagner J (2015c) A note on firm age and the margins of exports: first evidence from Germany. Int Trade J 29(2):93–102

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wagner J (2015d) Credit constraints and the extensive margins of exports: first evidence for German manufacturing. Economics 9:2015–2018

    Google Scholar 

  • Wagner J (2016a) Still different after all these years. Extensive and intensive margins of exports in East and West German manufacturing enterprises. Jahrb Nationalökon J Stat Econ Stat 236(2):297–322

    Google Scholar 

  • Wagner J (2016b) Qualtiy of firms’ imports and distance to countries of origin: first evidence from Germany. Econ Bull 36(1):515–521

    Google Scholar 

  • Wagner J (2016c) Exporter and importer dynamics database for Germany. Jahrb Nationalökon J Stat Econ Stat 236(3):411–420

    Google Scholar 

  • Wagner J (2016d) Quality of firms’ exports and distance to destination countries: first evidence from Germany. Open Econ Rev 27(4):811–818

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wagner J (2016e) Distance-sensitivity of German imports: first evidence from firm-product level data. Econ Bull 36(3):1275–1279

    Google Scholar 

  • Wagner J (2016f) The lumpiness of German exports and imports of goods. Economics 10:2016–2018

    Google Scholar 

  • Wagner J (2016g) A survey of empirical studies using transaction level data on exports and imports. Rev World Econ 152(1):215–225

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wagner J (2017a) Distance-sensitivity of German exports: first evidence from firm-product level data. Appl Econ Lett 24(3):140–142

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wagner J (2017b) R&D activities and extensive margins of exports in manufacturing enterprises: first evidence for Germany. Int Trade J 31(3):232–244

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wagner J (2017c) Trade dynamics and trade costs: first evidence from the exporter and importer dynamics database for Germany. Appl Econ Q 63(2):137–159

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wagner J (2017d) Trade costs shocks and lumpiness of imports: evidence from the Fukushima disaster. Econ Bull 37(1):149–155

    Google Scholar 

  • Wagner J (2017e) Intra-good trade in Germany: a first look at the evidence. Appl Econ 49(57):5753–5761

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wagner J (2017f) Kombinierte Firmenpaneldaten: Datenangebot und Analysepotenziale. In: Liebig S et al (ed) Handbuch Empirische Organisationsforschung. Springer Reference Wirtschaft, Wiesbaden, pp 63–74

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Wagner J (2018) Multiple import sourcing. First evidence for German enterprises from manufacturing industries. Open Econ Rev 29(1):165–175

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • World Trade Organization (2016) World trade statistical review 2016. https://www.wto.org/english/res_e/statis_e/wts2016_e/wts16_toc_e.htm. Accessed 6 Feb. 2018

    Google Scholar 

  • Zwick M (2007) CAMPUS files—free public use files for teaching purposes. Schmollers Jahrb J Appl Soc Sci Stud 127(4):655–668

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Economics, Leuphana University Lueneburg, PO Box 2440, 21314, Lueneburg, Germany

    Joachim Wagner

  2. CESIS, KTH Stockholm, Stockholm, Sweden

    Joachim Wagner

Authors
  1. Joachim Wagner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Joachim Wagner.

Additional information

All computations for the empirical studies with transaction data for Germany surveyed in this paper were done at the Research Data Centres of the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) in Wiesbaden and the Statistical Office of Berlin-Brandenburg in Berlin. I thank Melanie Scheller of Destatis for preparing the data and supervising my project.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Wagner, J. Germany’s trade in goods. AStA Wirtsch Sozialstat Arch 12, 69–82 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11943-018-0219-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11943-018-0219-y

Keywords

JEL Classification

Search

Navigation