Publication: Export Promotion and Firm Entry and Survival in Export Markets
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Date
2016-04-05
ISSN
0225-5189
Published
2016-04-05
Author(s)
Zavala, Lucas
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Abstract
Surveys of export promotion agencies suggest that that they tend to focus on helping firms become exporters as a means to stimulate aggregate export growth, but the existing empirical evidence has paid little attention to the role of export promotion agencies in helping entry into exporting. This paper fills this gap with a panel of exporting and non-exporting firms from seven Latin American countries during the period 2006–2010. The results suggest that export promotion encourages exports mainly by helping firms enter into and survive in export markets. The impact on the intensive margin of exporting firms is not robust.
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Publication Export Promotion and Firm Entry into and Survival in Export Markets(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-08)Surveys of export promotion agencies suggest that that they tend to focus on helping firms become exporters as a means to stimulate aggregate export growth. But the existing empirical evidence has paid little attention to the role of export promotion agencies in helping entry into exporting. This paper fills this gap with a panel of exporting and non-exporting firms from seven Latin American countries during the period 2006-2010. The results suggest that export promotion encourages exports mainly by helping firms enter into and survive in export markets. The impact on the intensive margin of exporting firms is not robust. This finding is consistent with export promotion helping reduce fixed rather than variable costs of exporting, which is to be expected if export promotion agencies help correct for market failures associated with information externalities.Publication Export Promotion Agencies Revisited(2009-11-01)The number of national export promotion agencies has tripled over the past two decades. Although more countries made them part of their export strategy, studies criticized their efficacy in developing countries. The agencies were retooled, partly in response to these critiques. This paper studies the impact of today's export promotion agencies and their strategies, based on new survey data covering 103 developing and developed countries. The results suggest that on average they have a statistically significant effect on exports. The identification strategies highlight the importance of EPA services for overcoming foreign trade barriers and solving asymmetric information problems associated with exports of heterogeneous goods. There are also strong diminishing returns, suggesting that as far as export promotion agencies are concerned, small is beautiful.Publication Export Promotion Agencies : What Works and What Doesn’t(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2006-11)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.Publication Exporting from a Small Landlocked Economy : An Assessment of Firm-Product-Destination Survival Rates in the Lao PDR(2011-06-01)This paper analyzes previously unreleased firm-level customs transaction data from the Lao PDR in order to assess the determinants of cohort survival among exporters. The authors find that export flows in value terms are dominated by the intensive margin, with large firms continuing to supply the same products to the same markets. On the extensive margin, new export spells for firms, products and firm-product-destination units are very small and short-lived, suggesting that although there is significant experimentation and discovery by firms, there is only limited capacity to stay in markets once an entry is made. Regression analyses of the factors that influence survival past the first year reveal that this is positively correlated with the initial dollar value (starting big makes a difference) and is helped by the firm's experience with the product and the destination, but hindered by a lack of focus. Agglomeration of exporters in the same destination with the same product is beneficial, an effect analogous to external economies of scale. The authors conclude by recommending that the focus of export promotion activity should be on helping existing exporters find and stay in new markets.Publication Chinese Firms' Entry to Export Markets : The Role of Foreign Export Spillovers(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-04)In this paper, the effect of proximity to multinational exporters on the creation of new export linkages (the extensive margin of trade) is debated. Using panel data from Chinese customs for 1997-2007, the capacity for Chinese domestic firms to begin exporting new varieties to new markets is shown to respond positively to the export activity of neighboring foreign firms. These spillovers are shown to be product and country specific. This conclusion is robust to fixed effects and instrumental variable specifications that control for both supply and demand shocks that could bias the estimations. The impact is sizable. The marginal impact of product-country-specific foreign export spillovers is five times as large as the effect of a 10 percent increase in the demand for the product in the destination country. Foreign export spillovers are also shown to be primarily limited to ordinary trade activities. Overall, our findings suggest that even for a country with an important cost-advantage such as China, there is room for initiatives from policy-makers that will diffuse best practices regarding export experience among exporters.
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