IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wbk/wbrwps/4044.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Export promotion agencies : what works and what doesn't

Author

Listed:
  • Lederman, Daniel
  • Olarreaga, Marcelo
  • Payton, Lucy

Abstract

The number of national export promotion agencies (EPAs) has tripled over the past two decades. While more countries have made them part of their national export strategy, studies have criticized their efficiency in developing countries (Hogan, Keesing, and Singer 1991). Partly in reaction to these critiques, EPAs have been retooled (see International Trade Centre, ITC, 1998 or 2000, for example). This paper studies the impact of existing EPAs and their strategies based on a new data set covering 104 industrial and developing countries. Results suggest that on average they have a strong and statistically significant impact on exports. For each $1 of export promotion, the paper estimates a $40 increase in exports for the median EPA. However, there is heterogeneity across regions, levels of development, and types of instruments. Furthermore, there are strong diminishing returns, suggesting that as far as EPAs are concerned, small is beautiful.

Suggested Citation

  • Lederman, Daniel & Olarreaga, Marcelo & Payton, Lucy, 2006. "Export promotion agencies : what works and what doesn't," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4044, The World Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:4044
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2007/03/23/000016406_20070323095724/Rendered/PDF/wps4044.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Timothy J Wilkinson & Lance Eliot Brouthers, 2000. "Trade Shows, Trade Missions and State Governments: Increasing FDI and High-Tech Exports," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 31(4), pages 725-734, December.
    2. Simeon Djankov & Caroline Freund & Cong S. Pham, 2010. "Trading on Time," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 92(1), pages 166-173, February.
    3. Andrew K. Rose, 2007. "The Foreign Service and Foreign Trade: Embassies as Export Promotion," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 22-38, January.
    4. Hausmann, Ricardo & Rodrik, Dani, 2003. "Economic development as self-discovery," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(2), pages 603-633, December.
    5. Keesing, Donald B, 1983. "Linking Up to Distant Markets: South to North Exports of Manufactured Consumer Goods," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 73(2), pages 338-342, May.
    6. Macario, Carla, 2000. "Export growth in Latin America: policies and performance," Copublicaciones, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 1642 edited by Lynne Rienner Publishers.
    7. Patrick Puhani, 2000. "The Heckman Correction for Sample Selection and Its Critique," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(1), pages 53-68, February.
    8. Alvarez, Roberto, 2004. "Sources of export success in small- and medium-sized enterprises: the impact of public programs," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 13(3), pages 383-400, June.
    9. F H Rolf Seringhaus & Guenther Botschen, 1991. "Cross-National Comparison of Export Promotion Services: The Views of Canadian and Austrian Companies," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 22(1), pages 115-133, March.
    10. Heckman, James, 2013. "Sample selection bias as a specification error," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 31(3), pages 129-137.
    11. Masaaki Kotabe & Michael R Czinkota, 1992. "State Government Promotion of Manufacturing Exports: A Gap Analysis," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 23(4), pages 637-658, December.
    12. Mihir A. Desai & James R. Hines Jr., 2001. "Exchange Rates and Tax-Based Export Promotion," NBER Working Papers 8121, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lederman, Daniel & Olarreaga, Marcelo & Payton, Lucy, 2010. "Export promotion agencies: Do they work?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(2), pages 257-265, March.
    2. Kahiya, Eldrede T., 2024. "A problematization review of export assistance: Debates and future directions," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(1).
    3. Moons, S.J.V. & van Bergeijk, P.A.G., 2013. "A meta-analysis of economic diplomacy and its effect on international economic flows," ISS Working Papers - General Series 50074, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Hague.
    4. Jaime DE MELO & Marcelo OLARREAGA, 2017. "Trade Related Institutions and Development," Working Papers P199, FERDI.
    5. Freixanet, Joan, 2022. "Export promotion programs: A system-based systematic review and agenda for future research," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 57(4).
    6. Selwyn J. V. Moons & Peter A. G. Bergeijk, 2017. "Does Economic Diplomacy Work? A Meta-analysis of Its Impact on Trade and Investment," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(2), pages 336-368, February.
    7. (ed.), 0. "Research Handbook on Economic Diplomacy," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 16053.
    8. Wilkinson, Timothy & Brouthers, Lance Eliot, 2006. "Trade promotion and SME export performance," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 233-252, June.
    9. Wei, Shang-Jin & Wei, Ziru & Xu, Jianhuan, 2021. "On the market failure of “missing pioneers”," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    10. Cadot, Olivier & Fernandes, Ana M. & Gourdon, Julien & Mattoo, Aaditya, 2015. "Are the benefits of export support durable? Evidence from Tunisia," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(2), pages 310-324.
    11. Giovanni Dosi & Nanditha Mathew & Emanuele Pugliese, 2019. "What a firm produces matters: diversification, coherence and performance of Indian manufacturing firms," LEM Papers Series 2019/10, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    12. Joan Freixanet, 2014. "Innovation and internationalization: relationship and implications for management and public policy," International Journal of Entrepreneurial Knowledge, Center for International Scientific Research of VSO and VSPP, vol. 2(2), pages 57-75, December.
    13. Wagner, Rodrigo & Zahler, Andrés, 2015. "New exports from emerging markets: Do followers benefit from pioneers?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 203-223.
    14. Joseph LiPuma & Scott Newbert & Jonathan Doh, 2013. "The effect of institutional quality on firm export performance in emerging economies: a contingency model of firm age and size," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 40(4), pages 817-841, May.
    15. Ayob, Abu H. & Freixanet, Joan, 2014. "Insights into public export promotion programs in an emerging economy: The case of Malaysian SMEs," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 38-46.
    16. Söderbom, Måns & Weng, Qian, 2012. "Multi-product firms, product mix changes and upgrading: Evidence from China's state-owned forest areas," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 801-818.
    17. Francesco Lamperti & Mariana Mazzucato & Andrea Roventini & Gregor Semieniuk, 2019. "The Green Transition: Public Policy, Finance, and the Role of the State," Vierteljahrshefte zur Wirtschaftsforschung / Quarterly Journal of Economic Research, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 88(2), pages 73-88.
    18. Ahmed Boutorat & Loe Franssen, 2023. "Economic missions and firm internationalization: evidence from the Netherlands," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 159(3), pages 787-826, August.
    19. Olivier Cadot & Céline Carrère & Vanessa Strauss-Kahn, 2014. "OECD imports: diversification of suppliers and quality search," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 150(1), pages 1-24, February.
    20. Yuanhong Hu & Min Jiang & Sheng Sun & Yixin Dai, 2022. "Does Trade Facilitation Promote Export Technological Sophistication? Evidence From the European Transition Countries," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(2), pages 21582440221, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Economic Theory&Research; Country Strategy&Performance; Trade Policy; Tax Law; Free Trade;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations
    • O19 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - International Linkages to Development; Role of International Organizations

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:wbk:wbrwps:4044. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Roula I. Yazigi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dvewbus.html .

    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.