Joakim Gullstrand
Dean, Professor
Exporting may not always boost firm productivity
Author
Summary, in English
A large empirical literature suggests the performance characteristics of firms that export are different from firms that do not. Specifically, exporters tend to be larger, more productive and pay higher wages than non-exporters. This paper reports on an econometric analysis of the characteristics of exporters and nonexporters in Swedish manufacturing industry. We use matching and difference-in-differences analysis to investigate a panel data set on a large number of firms and spanning almost 20 years. Some of our results echo those reported elsewhere. However, in contrast to the findings for every other country analysed so far, we find that the performance characteristics of exporters and non-exporters are remarkably similar. In particular, we find no evidence of pre- or post-entry differences in firm level productivity. This is a striking outcome, probably driven by the extremely high openness of the Swedish economy JEL no. F14.
Department/s
- Department of Economics
Publishing year
2005
Language
English
Pages
561-582
Publication/Series
Review of World Economics
Volume
141
Issue
4
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
Springer
Topic
- Economics
Keywords
- matching
- firm level productivity
- Exporting
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 1610-2878