Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/109516 
Year of Publication: 
2015
Series/Report no.: 
Economics Discussion Papers No. 2015-26
Publisher: 
Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW), Kiel
Abstract: 
This paper explores the link between exports and total factor productivity (TFP) for Brazilian manufacturing firms over the period 2000-2008, both under the assumption of an exogenous or an endogenous law of motion for productivity. The authors first obtain TFP estimates under each alternative assumption following Wooldridge (On estimating firm-level production functions using proxy variables to control for unobservables, 2009) GMM procedure. Second, using stochastic dominance techniques they analyse whether the ex-ante most productive firms are those that start exporting (self-selection hypothesis). Finally, the authors test whether exporting boosts firms TFP growth (learning-by-exporting hypothesis) using matching techniques, to control for the possibility that selection into exports may not be a random process. Their results confirm the self-selection hypothesis and show that starting to export yields firms an extra TFP growth that emerges since the first year exporting but lasts only from this year to the next. Further, this extra TFP growth is much higher under the assumption of an endogenous law of motion for productivity, which reinforces the importance of accounting for firm export status to study the evolution of productivity.
Subjects: 
TFP
export status
exogenous vs. endogenous Markov
semi-parametric approach
self-selection
stochastic dominance
learning-by exporting
matching techniques
JEL: 
F14
D24
C14
C33
C36
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by Logo
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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