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INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND FIRM PRODUCTIVITY WITHIN THE ITALIAN MANUFACTURING SECTOR: Self-Selection or Learning-by-Exporting?

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  • Michele Imbruno

Abstract

The ongoing process of international economic integration has induced several academic researchers and policy makers to deepen increasingly issues about the relationship between international trade and economic growth. More in particular, the attention is increasingly focusing on the link between exporting and firm performance, acknowledging the extreme relevance of 'firm heterogeneity'. This paper investigates empirically the exporting-productivity linkage in the Italian manufacturing sector, following a brief overview of recent literature. By using firm-level panel data for the years 2000 and 2003, we find that exporters are more productive than non-exporters and this productivity gap could be due to the self-selection mechanism – solely the high-performance firms are able to serve foreign markets – rather than post-entry effects.

Suggested Citation

  • Michele Imbruno, 2008. "INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND FIRM PRODUCTIVITY WITHIN THE ITALIAN MANUFACTURING SECTOR: Self-Selection or Learning-by-Exporting?," Quaderni DSEMS 21-2008, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche, Matematiche e Statistiche, Universita' di Foggia.
    • Handle: RePEc:ufg:qdsems:21-2008
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Valeria Gattai, 2015. "Internationalisation and performance at the firm-level: what we learn from Italy," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 42(4), pages 475-509, December.
    2. Michele Imbruno, 2008. "EXPORTING, PRODUCTIVITY AND MARKET INTEGRATON: Italian manufacturing firms within the European context," Quaderni DSEMS 22-2008, Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche, Matematiche e Statistiche, Universita' di Foggia.
    3. Valeria Gattai, 2015. "Foreign exposure and heterogeneous performance of Italian firms: A survey of the empirical literature (1992-2014)," Working Papers 300, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics, revised Apr 2015.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Trade; Productivity; Heterogeneous firms; Self-selection; Learning-byexporting.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D21 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Theory
    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade

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