The rise of economic protectionism worldwide has come with the re-emergence of mercantilist policies whereby governments push for exports while restricting imports. Against this populist approach, we show that importing inputs can raise productivity and export. Using firm-level data matched with very detailed customs data of Indonesia’s exports and imports during 2008–2012, we apply instrumental variable strategy with import tariffs and import weighted real exchange rates as instruments for import of intermediate inputs. We find causality from imported inputs to productivity increase and export growth. Higher access to input varieties has a larger impact than an increase in import volume on export, implying that the main benefits of importing may come from access to broader alternatives of inputs. Furthermore, the impact is also larger when imports originate from developed countries, suggestive of a positive effect of technology and product quality.

全球经济保护主义的兴起伴随着重商主义政策的重新出现，即政府在限制进口的同时推动出口。与这种民粹主义方法相反，我们表明进口投入可以提高生产力和出口。使用与 2008-2012 年印度尼西亚进出口的非常详细的海关数据相匹配的企业级数据，我们应用工具变量策略，将进口关税和进口加权实际汇率作为中间投入进口的工具。我们发现进口投入与生产率提高和出口增长之间存在因果关系。与进口量​​增加相比，获得更多投入品品种对出口的影响更大，这意味着进口的主要好处可能来自获得更广泛的投入品替代品。此外，