Service Trade and Occupational Tasks: An Empirical Investigation

Using microdata for Belgium, we investigate the relationship between changes in the task content of production and the rise in the number of service exporters. We show that occupational tasks changes display an extremely consistent relationship with participation to service exports: in sectors in which the importance of face‐to‐face communication with customers has increased, the firm‐level likelihood of entering export markets has decreased; instead, the likelihood of exporting increased in sectors in which the sophistication of production and delivery has expanded (following an increase in cognitive tasks). Moreover, our analysis suggests that the change in IT use per se does not strike as being a key underlying force behind the increase in the extensive margin of service exports. These results are robust controlling for comparative advantage, offshoring, trade liberalisation and demand shifts.     

Correction to: Services versus goods trade: a firm-level comparison

Review of World Economics - In the original publication of the paper, the below lines were wrongly publishes on page 22 as: Over that period Belgian firms were obliged to declare to the NBB any...     

Firm heterogeneity and aggregate business services exports: Micro evidence from Belgium,France, Germany and Spain

This paper uses detailed micro data on services exports at the firm–destination–service level to analyse the role of firm heterogeneity in shaping aggregate services exports in Belgium, France, Germany and Spain from 2003 to 2007. We decompose the level and the growth of aggregate services exports into different trade margins paying special attention to firm heterogeneity within countries. We find that the weak export growth of France is at least partly due to poor performance by small exporters. By contrast, small exporters are the most dynamic contributors to the aggregate exports of Belgium, Germany and Spain. Our results highlight the importance of firm heterogeneity in understanding aggregate export growth.