This study examines wholesalers’ roles in manufacturers’ exports in Japan. First, it is shown that, like in the case of manufacturing sector, a productivity sorting on the overseas activities is also present in the case of wholesalers. Namely, only the most productive wholesaler firms can engage in foreign direct investment, and the next productive wholesaler firms can participate in export activities, and the least productive wholesaler firms do domestic transactions only. Second, we investigate how the wholesalers facilitate manufacturers’ export activities in the form of indirect exports. We have found that the wholesalers through which manufacturing firms indirectly export their goods are predominantly located in Tokyo or Osaka. The probability of indirect exports is negatively correlated with distance between manufacturers and wholesalers, but there are certain threshold distances at 300–500 kilometers, over which the chance of indirect exports turns null. Another notable finding is that wholesalers’ productivities have positive correlation with the chances of indirect exports whereas manufacturers’ productivities do not matter. The number of manufacturers from which a wholesaler purchases goods, is found to have a positive correlation with the probability of indirect exports, a type of economies of scope effect.

这项研究考察了批发商在日本制造商出口中的作用。首先，它表明，与制造业一样，批发商也存在对海外活动进行生产率分类的问题。即，只有生产效率最高的批发商公司可以从事外国直接投资，而下一个生产性批发商的公司可以参与出口活动，而生产效率最低的批发商的公司只能进行国内交易。其次，我们研究批发商如何以间接出口的形式促进制造商的出口活动。我们发现，制造公司通过其间接出口其商品的批发商主要位于东京或大阪。间接出口的可能性与制造商和批发商之间的距离负相关，但是在300-500公里处有一定的阈值距离，在此距离上间接出口的机会变为零。另一个值得注意的发现是，批发商的生产率与间接出口的机会呈正相关，而制造商的生产率无关紧要。发现批发商从中购买商品的制造商数量与间接出口的可能性（一种范围经济效应）呈正相关。