Quality standards and export activities : Do firm size andmarket destination matter?

Using original data from French firms, this study explores the relationship between quality standards and four indicators of export activities: the logarithm of exports per employee, the logarithm of exports per employee destined for EU countries, the logarithm of exports per employee destined for non- EU countries, and the share of exports of total sales. The results indicate that the sign of the relationship between quality standards and export activities is positive and statistically significant for all four indicators, supporting the view that quality standards provide information on the general capability of a firm to meet the quality expectations of customers and thus make unobservable characteristics more public. Moreover, we examine whether the quality standards–export activities relationship is firm size dependent. The findings indicate that while quality standards improve the logarithm of exports per employee and the logarithm of exports per employee destined for non-EU countries for all categories of firm size, they do not influence logarithm of exports per employee destined for EU countries among large and small firms. Additionally, the effect is insignificant for the share of exports of total sales when we look at the medium size firms.