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Exports and Firm Characteristics in German manufacturing industries

Author

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  • Joachim Wagner

    (Institute of Economics, Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Germany)

Abstract

Reliable information on the characteristics of exporting and non-exporting firms is important to guide theorists and policy makers in an evidence based way. This holds true especially for Germany, a leading actor on the world markets for goods and services. This paper makes three contributions towards this aim: (1) It provides a synopsis and a critical assessment of 51 empirical studies on exports and firm characteristics that use data for German establishments or enterprises, arguing that this literature is not suited to extract the stylized facts needed. (2) It uses recently released rich high quality data for a large representative panel of enterprises from German manufacturing industries to investigate the links between firm characteristics and export activities, demonstrating the decisive role of human capital intensity for exporting. (3) It links these findings to the recent literature from the new new trade theory on international activities of heterogeneous firms that emphasises the role of productivity for exporting. It shows that productivity is important for exporting as is hypothesized in the formal theoretical models, but that contrary to the assumption made in these models productivity is not (only) the result from a random draw from the productivity distribution – it is strongly positively related to human capital intensity.

Suggested Citation

  • Joachim Wagner, 2010. "Exports and Firm Characteristics in German manufacturing industries," Working Paper Series in Economics 188, University of Lüneburg, Institute of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:lue:wpaper:188
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    Cited by:

    1. Izak Atiyas, 2011. "Firm-Level Data In The Mena Region: Research Questions, Data Requirements And Possibilities," Middle East Development Journal (MEDJ), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 3(02), pages 159-190.
    2. Julian Emami Namini & Giovanni Facchini & Ricardo A. López, 2015. "A model of firm heterogeneity in factor intensities and international trade," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 48(4), pages 1456-1480, November.
    3. Han, Luyi & Wojan, Timothy R. & Tian, Zheng & Goetz, Stephan J., 2024. "How export performance is mediated by innovation, owner characteristics, and location," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 237(C).
    4. Marco Pinto & Jochen Michaelis, 2014. "International Trade and Unemployment—the Worker-selection Effect," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(2), pages 226-252, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Exports; firm characteristics; Germany;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade

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