Trade intermediation by producers

This paper shows that manufacturing exporters export goods they have not produced and thus also act as trade intermediaries. The geographical dimension of the data reveals almost half these exports “sourced” products are purely intermediated: to many destinations, firms sourced only. We find this type intermediation is ubiquitous across firms, products, robust a battery alternative definitions. These findings show by producers (TIP) solely driven carry-along trade, where bundled when exported. Our decomposition TIP highlights should be identified at firm-product-destination level. prevalence pure for all exporters, including largest ones, suggests plays an important role in firms' participation success international markets.