An analysis of US State’s export performance in the Asian Market

Asia is the most populous continent in the world and has fast become one of the richest and fastest growing continents in the world, thus, making this region a very important market for all companies and countries in the world today and more so in the future. Using a panel data for exports from the 50 U.S. states to 20 Asian countries, this study attempts to estimate the manufacturing export performance of U.S. states in the Asian market. The study also seeks to investigate what determines whether a state under- or overperforms in manufacturing exports to the Asian market. Our results indicate that a state’s manufacturing union density, infrastructure, legal system, corporate tax rate, employment density, pollution abatement cost, and regional location significantly impact whether the state will under- or overperform its export potential in the Asian market. Further, our results show that there are regional differences in the impact of the growth of Chinese exports on U.S. state exports to the Asian region.