IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/intecj/v34y2020i1p125-143.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Firm-Level Investment and Exporting: New Empirical Evidence from Ghana and Tanzania

Author

Listed:
  • Stephen Esaku
  • Waldo Krugell

Abstract

Using firm-level data from two selected African countries, we examine whether firm-level investment in physical capital is a possible channel through which less productive firms gain entry into export markets. Our findings reveal that non-exporters who invest in physical capital increase their probability of switching status, from non-exporter to exporter, and we provide evidence that firm-level investment is correlated with increased productivity growth among exporters. Consequently, we emphasize that firm-level investment in physical capital enables non-exporters to increase their odds of entry to export markets and provides opportunity for young exporters to grow rapidly and persist long in export markets. Although firm productivity differences can be explained by self-selection factors as one channel, firm-level investment in physical capital provides another explanation as to why less productive firms gain entry into the export markets. We establish that when firms invest in physical capital, they improve their productive capacity thereby raising their productivity in the process. Export promotion policies should target providing support to firms that seek to upgrade or expand their production technology as this would stimulate the probability of export market entry hence promoting exports.

Suggested Citation

  • Stephen Esaku & Waldo Krugell, 2020. "Firm-Level Investment and Exporting: New Empirical Evidence from Ghana and Tanzania," International Economic Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(1), pages 125-143, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:intecj:v:34:y:2020:i:1:p:125-143
    DOI: 10.1080/10168737.2019.1663440
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/10168737.2019.1663440
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/10168737.2019.1663440?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Stephen Esaku, 2020. "Investments, export entry and export intensity in small manufacturing firms," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 47(4), pages 677-697, December.
    2. Isaac Ketu & Arsene Mouongue Kelly & Jules-Eric Tchapchet Tchouto, 2024. "Does economic complexity reduce the size of the shadow economy in African countries?," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 4(1), pages 1-27, January.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:intecj:v:34:y:2020:i:1:p:125-143. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RIEJ20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.