Export intensity and the productivity gains of exporting

Abstract

This article analyses whether the productivity gains associated with Learning-by-Exporting (LBE) (controlling for self-selection) depend on the intensity of the firm's exporting activity. The results from a representative sample of Spanish manufacturing firms indicate that the yearly average gains in productivity are larger for those firms that increase their export-to-sales ratio.

Keywords:

• export intensity
• Learning-by-Exporting
• productivity
• endogenous Markov
• semi-parametric approach

JEL Classification:

• C13
• C14
• C33
• C36
• D24
• F1

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge financial support from Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (projects ECO2011-25033, ECO2011-30323-C03-02 and SEJ2010-19088/ECON), Generalitat Valenciana (project PROMETEO/068) and Generalitat de Catalunya (‘Xarxa de Referència d'R + D + I en Economia i Polítiques Públiques’). Miguel Manjón Antolín acknowledges the hospitality of the Center for Economic Studies at KU Leuven. Usual caveats apply.

Notes

¹ We assume that the firm decides whether to export in t knowing its productivity in t – 1.

² Metals, nonmetallic minerals, chemicals, machinery, transport equipment, food, drink and tobacco, textile, leather and shoes, timbre and furniture and paper and printing.

³ A firm is an export starter in t if it has not exported during the sample periods previous to t (and it has been observed in the sample for at least 2 years before t). A firm is a nonexporter if it has not exported in any of the periods it is observed in the sample (and it has been observed in the sample for at least 2 years).

⁴ See http://www.fundacionsepi.es/esee for details.