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Importing, Exporting and the Productivity of Services Firms in Sub-Saharan Africa

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  • Neil Foster-McGregor

    (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw)

  • Anders Isaksson
  • Florian Kaulich

Abstract

In this paper we examine productivity differences between trading and non-trading firms in the services sector using recently collected data on a sample of 19 sub-Saharan African firms. A variety of parametric and non-parametric tests are implemented in order to examine whether exporters, importers and two-way traders perform better than non-traders, and whether there are differences in performance between different types of trading firms. Our results indicate that services firms that are engaged in international trade perform significantly better than those firms that trade on the domestic market only. Two-way traders and exporters only are found to perform better than importers only, with no significant difference in performance found between two-way traders and exporters only. We further present evidence indicating that there is no significant difference in performance between export starters and export continuers, a result consistent with the self-selection hypothesis for African services firms.

Suggested Citation

  • Neil Foster-McGregor & Anders Isaksson & Florian Kaulich, 2013. "Importing, Exporting and the Productivity of Services Firms in Sub-Saharan Africa," wiiw Working Papers 98, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw.
    • Handle: RePEc:wii:wpaper:98
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    Cited by:

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    2. Sebastian Leitner, 2015. "Drivers of wealth inequality in euro area countries," Working Paper Reihe der AK Wien - Materialien zu Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft 137, Kammer für Arbeiter und Angestellte für Wien, Abteilung Wirtschaftswissenschaft und Statistik.
    3. Arne J. Nagengast & Robert Stehrer, 2016. "The Great Collapse in Value Added Trade," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(2), pages 392-421, May.
    4. H. Stephen Gardner & Lourenço S. Paz & John Ssozi, 2023. "The influence of international trade on labour productivity in services: The case of Brazil in the 1990s," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(1), pages 268-290, February.
    5. Neil Foster-McGregor & Anders Isaksson & Florian Kaulich, 2013. "Importing, Productivity and Absorptive Capacity in Sub-Saharan African Manufacturing Firms," wiiw Working Papers 105, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw.
    6. Johannes Pöschl & Katarina Valkova, 2015. "Welfare State Regimes and Social Determinants of Health in Europe," wiiw Working Papers 118, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw.
    7. Roman Stöllinger, 2016. "Structural change and global value chains in the EU," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 43(4), pages 801-829, November.
    8. Galina Besstremyannaya & Sergei Golovan, 2019. "Reconsideration of a simple approach to quantile regression for panel data: a comment on the Canay (2011) fixed effects estimator," Working Papers w0249, New Economic School (NES).
    9. Neil Foster-McGregor & Anders Isaksson & Florian Kaulich, 2014. "Importing, exporting and performance in sub-Saharan African manufacturing firms," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 150(2), pages 309-336, May.
    10. Roman Stöllinger, 2015. "Agglomeration and FDI: Bringing International Production Linkages into the Picture," wiiw Working Papers 121, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw.
    11. Galina Besstremyannaya & Sergei Golovan, 2019. "Reconsideration of a simple approach to quantile regression for panel data: a comment on the Canay (2011) fixed effects estimator," Working Papers w0249, Center for Economic and Financial Research (CEFIR).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    productivity; imports; exports; services firms;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • F10 - International Economics - - Trade - - - General
    • L10 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - General

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