Firm R&D,Absorptive Capacity and Learning by Exporting: Firm‐level Evidence from China

The absorptive capacity of firms developed through R&D promotes learning by exporting. In this paper, we estimate the instantaneous and long‐run productivity effects of exporting on the universe of Chinese manufacturing firms. We find that exporting has very different productivity effects for firms with different pre‐export R&D status. It has large and lasting productivity effects for firms with pre‐export R&D, while it has little effects for firms without pre‐export R&D. Furthermore, the effect of exporting increases with the number of years of pre‐export R&D investment.     

Trade effects of the Europe agreements: A theory-based gravity approach

We analyze normalized productivity differences for 15 developing Latin American countries and four firm types: National Domestic, National Exporter, Foreign Domestic, and Foreign Exporter. There are no productivity thresholds for viability, export activity, or multinational activity, but we do find a clear size productivity premium and development productivity premium in the manufacturing sectors. We also find a clear foreign-ownership productivity premium, both for domestic firms and for exporting firms and both for manufacturing sectors and services sectors. In contrast, we only find an export productivity premium for national firms in the manufacturing sectors.     

Export Premium,Self‐selection and Learning‐by‐Exporting: Evidence from Chinese Matched Firms

This study empirically focuses on examining the hypotheses of export premium (exporters are more productive than non‐exporters), selection‐into‐exporting (more productive firms are ones that tend to become exporters) and learning‐by‐exporting (new export market entrants have higher productivity growth than non‐exporters in the post‐entry period). The propensity score matching method is used to adjust for observable differences of firm characteristics between exporters and non‐exporters, allowing an adequate ‘like‐for‐like’ comparison. We also use the difference‐in‐difference matching estimator to capture the magnitude of different productivity growth between matched new export market entrants and non‐exporters in the post‐entry period up to two years. Drawing on 2,340 Chinese firms in the period 2000–02, we find evidence for export premium and self‐selection, and once the firm has entered the export market there is additional productivity growth from the learning effect, in particular in the second year after entry.     

The Skill Structure of Export Wage Premium: Evidence from Chinese Matched Employer–Employee Data

We study how the wage gap between exporting and non‐exporting firms (export wage premium) differs across skill groups, using unique matched employer–employee data from China. We find robust evidence that exporters pay relatively higher wages than non‐exporters to more educated workers. The differences in export wage premium across education groups are sizable. Further investigations show that the positive correlation between export wage premium and education is more pronounced in sectors with higher scope for quality differentiation. This is consistent with the theory that exporters produce relatively higher quality goods which require relatively higher quality skilled workers.     

Export and Firm Performance: Evidence on Productivity and Profitability of Italian Companies

Empirical research in international trade has shown that exporting firms display higher productivity than their non-exporting competitors. This paper focuses on the relation between export and profitability. Our evidence on Italian exporting firms shows that exporting activity is not systematically associated to higher firm’s profitability. This is shown both by means of non-parametric methods and, with an approach that is more standard within the empirical trade literature, by regression techniques that try to identify an “export premium”.     

Foreign Market Competition as a Determinant of Exporter Performance: Evidence from Slovenian Manufacturing Firms

Most studies on the link between exporting status and firm productivity find no evidence of learning‐by‐exporting, whereas self‐selection of more productive firms into exporting is most often confirmed. Furthermore, empirical tests of the learning‐by‐exporting hypothesis rarely rely on a specific learning mechanism and instead estimate very general tests of the effects of exporting on improvements of firm efficiency. Lack of explicit controls for specific learning mechanisms in turn biases the empirical estimates against finding the learning effects. Here I undertake a more targeted approach to learning‐by‐exporting by using data on Slovenian manufacturing enterprises between 1994 and 2002 to explore a specific channel for learning in the export markets. Using a variety of empirical tests, I show that competition in exporting markets serves as an added criterion in firm self‐selection as only the most productive and fastest growing firms choose to enter more competitive foreign markets. Once home‐market competition is explicitly controlled, a significant productivity adjustment effect of exporting firms in response to intensification of export market competition is revealed. Crucially, this provides tentative evidence of learning‐by‐exporting, which has so far been elusive in the relevant literature.     

Exporting raises productivity in sub-Saharan African manufacturing firms

Proponents of trade liberalization argue that exporting helps firms to achieve higher productivity levels. This hypothesis is examined for a panel of manufacturing firms in nine African countries. The results indicate that exporters in these countries are more productive and, more importantly, exporters increase their productivity advantage after entry into the export market. While the first finding can be explained by selection–only the most productive firms engage in exporting–the latter cannot. The results are robust when unobserved productivity differences and self-selection into the export market are controlled for using different econometric methods. Scale economies are shown to be an important channel for the productivity advance. Credit constraints and contract enforcement problems prevent firms that only produce for the domestic market from fully exploiting scale economies.     

Where Do Firms Export,How Much and Why?

The empirical finding that exporting firms are more productive on average than non‐exporters has provoked a large theoretical literature based on models such as Melitz ( 2003 ), where more productive firms are more likely to overcome costs associated with trade. This paper investigates how closely the productivity heterogeneity framework fits the data from a firm‐level survey that includes information on export destinations and firm characteristics such as productivity. We find a high degree of unpredictable idiosyncratic participation in export markets by firms and a relatively weak positive correlation between the extent of a firm's export market participation and its export sales. We find that a small number of standard gravity variables provide a close fit to the country‐level determinants of trade but that greater variation results in more difficulty in explaining firm‐specific factors driving exporting behaviour. We also illustrate some elements of the dynamics over time in firm exporting patterns by destination. We show that lagged exporting activity has a significant effect on a firm's current exporting profile.     

Exporting and Economic Performance: Firm‐level Evidence of Spanish Manufacturing

In a previous paper, Delgado, Fariñas and Ruano (2002) report TFP differences between exporters and non‐exporters on the basis of a sample of Spanish manufacturing firms. In this paper, we extend the previous analysis in three directions using a similar data set. First, we investigate additional economic performance differences between exporters and non‐exporters. Second, we measure TFP differences estimating production functions that control for unobserved heterogeneity and simultaneity bias. Third, we explore the self‐selection and learning‐by‐exporting hypothesis as explanations for the greater performance of exporters. With respect to the results, we confirm that many indicators of economic performance such as productivity, size, wages and innovation are greater in exporting firms. Furthermore, TFP differences between exporters and non‐exporters estimated with parametric methods are remarkably similar to those estimated using index numbers. Finally, performance differences and transition patterns between the export market and the domestic market indicate higher performance for entering exporters with respect to non‐exporters at the moment of entry. We find evidence of selection in the entry and the exit side of the export market. One of the basic results that we obtain indicates that after controlling for self‐selection, the productivity growth of entering exporters does not significantly change with respect to non‐exporters. As the evidence we find indicates no systematic changes in performance between non‐exporters and exporters after entry takes place, we do not confirm the learning‐by‐exporting hypothesis.     

Entry to foreign markets and productivity: Evidence from a matched sample of Turkish manufacturing firms

We examine the effects of international trading activities of firms on creating productivity gains in Turkey by using a recent firm-level data set over the period 2003–2010. We establish treatment models and investigate the productivity improvements of firms through trade by using propensity score matching techniques together with difference-in-difference estimates. Three different groups of treatment are constructed: (1) firms that are involved only with import activities, (2) firms that are involved only with export activities and (3) firms that are involved with both export and import activities. The results of the study suggest that both exporting and importing have positive significant effects on total factor productivity (TFP) and labour productivity (LP) of firms. Importing is found to have a greater impact on productivity of firms compared to exporting. Further, two-way trade is found to have more significant effects than those of one-way trade on firm productivity. Finally, our results indicate that international trade has greater impact on LP rather than TFP of firms.     

Do export status and export intensity increase firm performance?

This study examines the effects of export status and export intensity on the performance of firms in Ghana. Our measures of performance include productivity and profitability. Using the Regional Project on Enterprise Development (RPED) dataset covering the period 1991–2002, the results of this study indicate that export status and export intensity have positive effects on productivity, confirming the learning‐by‐exporting hypothesis. Competition on the international market exposes exporting firms to new technologies, and this has the potential of increasing their productivity. Thus, economic policy initiatives should be directed at encouraging firms to enter the export market. Existing exporters should also be motivated to intensify their exporting efforts by exporting more of their output to foreign markets. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Trade and Productivity in a Transition Economy: the Role of Industry and Export Destination

This paper focuses on the joint role of industry technology intensity and export market characteristics in the analysis of export-related productivity gains. Using a unique database of Ukrainian manufacturing firms in 2000-06, we classify all manufacturing sectors according to their technology intensity and estimate destination-specific learning by exporting effects separately for firms operating in high and low technology sectors. New exporters in high technology sectors enjoy robust long-term productivity growth premia when targeting advanced export markets, consistent with learning through exports. Export entrants in low technology sectors, instead, enjoy mostly short-term productivity improvements regardless of the export destination. Our findings suggest that the systematic distinction between the technology intensity of various industries is a relevant dimension for empirical studies on destination-specific learning by exporting.     

Do exports generate higher productivity? Evidence from Slovenia

I use matched sampling techniques to analyze whether firms that start exporting become more productive, controlling for the self-selection into export markets. To this end, I use micro data of Slovenian manufacturing firms operating in the period 1994-2000. Overall I find that export entrants become more productive once they start exporting. The productivity gap between exporters and their domestic counterparts increases further over time. These results also hold at the industry level and are robust to other controls that may be associated with increased productivity, such as private ownership. Using information on the (firm-level) destination of exports, I find that the productivity gains are higher for firms exporting towards high income regions.     

Productivity and Learning‐by‐exporting: A Firm‐level Analysis of Indian Manufacturing

In this paper, we examine whether firms become productive by learning through exporting. To this end, we estimate the production function using microdata of Indian manufacturing firms operating in the period 1991–2001. In contrast to studies on developed countries, our results provide evidence that Indian manufacturing firms are experiencing a rise in productivity through entering export markets and thus experience the learning effect. We also find that there is a productivity rise prior to exporting. Therefore, our results also support the self‐selection mechanism for exporting.     

Exporting raises productivity in sub-Saharan African manufacturing firms

Proponents of trade liberalization argue that exporting helps firms to achieve higher productivity levels. This hypothesis is examined for a panel of manufacturing firms in nine African countries. The results indicate that exporters in these countries are more productive and, more importantly, exporters increase their productivity advantage after entry into the export market. While the first finding can be explained by selection-only the most productive firms engage in exporting-the latter cannot. The results are robust when unobserved productivity differences and self-selection into the export market are controlled for using different econometric methods. Scale economies are shown to be an important channel for the productivity advance. Credit constraints and contract enforcement problems prevent firms that only produce for the domestic market from fully exploiting scale economies.     

Exporting and Environmental Performance: A Firm‐level Productivity Analysis

The objective of this paper is to study empirically the relationship between export orientation and firms’ environmental performance from different perspectives of trade theory. On the one hand, productivity heterogeneity is analysed within the new trade‐theoretical framework. The approach followed is to determine firm‐level productivity components, including an environmental productivity indicator (as a performance measure) and taking as reference the Spanish food industry. On the other hand, from the traditional comparative advantage perspective, this study also develops an export performance model to evaluate the effect of technology, environmental variables and factor endowment on exporting. The results show greater environmental productivity and corporate efficiency for export‐oriented firms. Our findings also determine the positive effect on firms’ export intensity of environmental performance as a factor of specialisation and technology proficiency.     

Exporting and productivity in business services: Evidence from the United States

Does exporting make firms more productive, or do more productive firms choose to become exporters? This paper considers the link between exporting and productivity for a sample of firms in US business services. We find that larger, more productive firms are more likely to become exporters, but that these factors do not necessarily influence the extent of exporting. This conforms with previous literature that there is a self-selection effect into exporting. We then test for the effect of exporting on productivity levels after allowing for this selection effect. We model both the relationship between exporting and productivity, and a simultaneous relationship between export intensity and productivity after allowing for selection bias. In both cases we find an association, indicating that productivity is positively linked both to exporting and to increased exposure to international markets.     

Human capital and wages in exporting firms

This paper studies the link between the education level of workers, export performance and wages. We argue that firms may escape intense competition in international markets by using high skilled workers to differentiate their products. This story is consistent with our empirical results. Using a very rich matched worker-firm longitudinal dataset, we find that there is a weak negative direct effect of exporting on wages, but an interaction term between export intensity and skill intensity has a positive impact on wages. That is, we find an export wage premium, but only in firms where the skill intensity is sufficiently high.     

Export Premia and Subcontracting Discount: Passive Strategies and Performance in Domestic and Foreign Markets

This paper contributes to the literature on firms’ productivity and exporting decisions by analysing the role played by organisational choice aspects. Rather than setting up a vertically integrated structure, manufacturers may act as subcontractors in both domestic and foreign markets, and produce to satisfy the requirements of other firms. The predictions that the most productive firms self‐select into exporting, whereas the least productive ones work as subcontractors serving the domestic market only, are tested on a sample of Italian firms observed during the 1998–2003 period. The results of our estimates highlight a ranking of firms consistent with a priori expectations, and provide a clear indication that passive exporters (i.e. those using subcontracting in foreign markets) display lower total factor productivity (TFP) values when compared with direct exporters. Moreover, only the latter category exhibits higher pre‐entry productivity levels and growth rates as well as higher post‐entry TFP growth rates. Such findings are consistent with both the self‐selection hypothesis and the learning‐by‐exporting explanation.