IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp5147.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Self-Selection into Export Markets by Business Services Firms: Evidence from France, Germany and the United Kingdom

Author

Listed:
  • Temouri, Yama

    (Aston University)

  • Vogel, Alexander

    (Leuphana University Lüneburg)

  • Wagner, Joachim

    (Leuphana University Lüneburg)

Abstract

This study reports results from an empirical investigation of business services sector firms that (start to) export, comparing exporters to firms that serve the national market only. We estimate identically specified empirical models using comparable enterprise level data from France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Exporters are more productive and pay higher wages on average in all three countries. Results for profitability differ across borders – profitability of exporters is significantly smaller in Germany, significantly larger in France, and does not differ significantly in the UK. The results for wages and productivity hold in the years before the export start, which indicates self-selection into exporting of more productive services firms that pay higher wages. The surprising finding of self-selection of less profitable German business services firms into exporting does not show up among firms from France and the UK where no statistically significant relationship between profitability and starting to export is found.

Suggested Citation

  • Temouri, Yama & Vogel, Alexander & Wagner, Joachim, 2010. "Self-Selection into Export Markets by Business Services Firms: Evidence from France, Germany and the United Kingdom," IZA Discussion Papers 5147, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5147
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp5147.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wagner, Joachim, 2002. "The causal effects of exports on firm size and labor productivity: first evidence from a matching approach," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 77(2), pages 287-292, October.
    2. Sylvia Zühlke & Markus Zwick & Sebastian Scharnhorst & Thomas Wende, 2004. "European Data Watch: The research data centres of the Federal Statistical Office and the statistical offices of the Länder," Schmollers Jahrbuch : Journal of Applied Social Science Studies / Zeitschrift für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, vol. 124(4), pages 567-578.
    3. Alexander Vogel, 2009. "The German Business Services Statistics Panel 2003 to 2007," Schmollers Jahrbuch : Journal of Applied Social Science Studies / Zeitschrift für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, vol. 129(3), pages 515-522.
    4. Joachim Wagner, 2008. "Export Entry, Export Exit and Productivity in German Manufacturing Industries," International Journal of the Economics of Business, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(2), pages 169-180.
    5. Joachim Wagner, 2016. "Exports and Productivity: A Survey of the Evidence from Firm Level Data," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Microeconometrics of International Trade, chapter 1, pages 3-41, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    6. Helmut Fryges & Joachim Wagner, 2016. "Exports and Profitability — First Evidence for German Manufacturing Firms," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Microeconometrics of International Trade, chapter 7, pages 245-277, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    7. Elhanan Helpman & Marc J. Melitz & Stephen R. Yeaple, 2004. "Export Versus FDI with Heterogeneous Firms," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(1), pages 300-316, March.
    8. Henk Kox & Hugo Rojas-Romagosa, 2010. "Exports and Productivity Selection Effects for Dutch Firms," De Economist, Springer, vol. 158(3), pages 295-322, September.
    9. Alexander Vogel & Joachim Wagner, 2016. "Exports and Profitability — First Evidence for German Business Services Enterprises," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Microeconometrics of International Trade, chapter 8, pages 279-310, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    10. Jozef Konings & Alan Patrick Murphy, 2006. "Do Multinational Enterprises Relocate Employment to Low-Wage Regions? Evidence from European Multinationals," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 142(2), pages 267-286, July.
    11. John W. Budd & Jozef Konings & Matthew J. Slaughter, 2005. "Wages and International Rent Sharing in Multinational Firms," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 87(1), pages 73-84, February.
    12. Daniel S. Hamermesh, 2007. "Replication in Economics," NBER Working Papers 13026, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Mirabelle Muûls & Mauro Pisu, 2009. "Imports and Exports at the Level of the Firm: Evidence from Belgium," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(5), pages 692-734, May.
    14. Markus Kelle & Jörn Kleinert, 2010. "German Firms in Service Trade," Applied Economics Quarterly (formerly: Konjunkturpolitik), Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, vol. 56(1), pages 51-72.
    15. Breinlich, Holger & Criscuolo, Chiara, 2011. "International trade in services: A portrait of importers and exporters," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(2), pages 188-206, July.
    16. Bernard, Andrew B. & Bradford Jensen, J., 1999. "Exceptional exporter performance: cause, effect, or both?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 1-25, February.
    17. Daniel S. Hamermesh, 2000. "The Craft of Labormetrics," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 53(3), pages 363-380, April.
    18. R. Schmalensee & R. Willig (ed.), 1989. "Handbook of Industrial Organization," Handbook of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 1, number 1.
    19. Alberto Abadie & Guido W. Imbens, 2008. "On the Failure of the Bootstrap for Matching Estimators," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 76(6), pages 1537-1557, November.
    20. Thorsten Schank & Claus Schnabel & Joachim Wagner, 2016. "Higher Wages in Exporting Firms: Self-selection, Export Effect, or Both? First Evidence from Linked Employer–Employee Data," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Microeconometrics of International Trade, chapter 6, pages 215-241, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    21. Daniel S. Hamermesh, 2007. "Viewpoint: Replication in economics," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 40(3), pages 715-733, August.
    22. repec:spr:weltar:v:144:y:2008:i:4:p:596-635 is not listed on IDEAS
    23. Heckman, James J. & Lalonde, Robert J. & Smith, Jeffrey A., 1999. "The economics and econometrics of active labor market programs," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 31, pages 1865-2097, Elsevier.
    24. Schmalensee, Richard, 1989. "Inter-industry studies of structure and performance," Handbook of Industrial Organization, in: R. Schmalensee & R. Willig (ed.), Handbook of Industrial Organization, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 16, pages 951-1009, Elsevier.
    25. Alexander Vogel, 2009. "Exporter performance in the German business services sector," The Service Industries Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(7), pages 1015-1031, May.
    26. R. Schmalensee & R. Willig (ed.), 1989. "Handbook of Industrial Organization," Handbook of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, edition 1, volume 2, number 2.
    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. Joachim Wagner, 2016. "International Trade and Firm Performance: A Survey of Empirical Studies since 2006," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Microeconometrics of International Trade, chapter 2, pages 43-87, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    2. Joachim Wagner, 2016. "From Estimation Results to Stylized Facts: Twelve Recommendations for Empirical Research in International Activities of Heterogeneous Firms," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Microeconometrics of International Trade, chapter 15, pages 479-514, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    3. Joachim Wagner, 2016. "Exports, Imports and Profitability: First Evidence for Manufacturing Enterprises," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Microeconometrics of International Trade, chapter 9, pages 311-338, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    4. Joachim Wagner, 2014. "Is export diversification good for profitability? First evidence for manufacturing enterprises in Germany," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(33), pages 4083-4090, November.
    5. Maria Kalogera & Antonios Georgopoulos & Panagiota Boura, 2020. "Is there a link between firms? export activity and economic performance in a Small Open Economy? Evidence from Greece," Proceedings of Business and Management Conferences 10112601, International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences.
    6. Joachim Wagner, 2015. "New Methods for the Analysis of Links between International Firm Activities and Firm Performance: A Practitioner's Guide," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(4), pages 704-715, April.
    7. Heather D Gibson & Georgia Pavlou, 2017. "Exporting and performance:evidence from Greek firms," Economic Bulletin, Bank of Greece, issue 45, pages 7-30, July.
    8. Jože Damijan & Stefanie A. Haller & Ville Kaitila & Črt Kostevc & Mika Maliranta & Emmanuel Milet & Daniel Mirza & Matija Rojec, 2015. "The Performance of Trading Firms in the Services Sectors – Comparable Evidence from Four EU Countries," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(12), pages 1809-1849, December.
    9. Diana Alexandra Gonçalves Costa & Ana Teresa Cunha de Pinho Tavares Lehmann, 2015. "Performance Differences between Exporters and Non-Exporters: the Case of Portugal," FEP Working Papers 569, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.
    10. Stefanie Haller & Jože Damijan & Ville Kaitila & Črt Kostevc & Mika Maliranta & Emmanuel Milet & Daniel Mirza & Matija Rojec, 2014. "Trading firms in the services sectors: comparable evidence from four EU countries," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 150(3), pages 471-505, August.
    11. Joachim Wagner, 2011. "Productivity and International Firm Activities: What do we know?," Working Paper Series in Economics 194, University of Lüneburg, Institute of Economics.
    12. Asier Minondo, 2014. "The Relationship Between Export Status And Productivity In Services: A Firm-Level Analysis For Spain," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 66(S1), pages 138-146, December.
    13. Joachim Wagner, 2016. "Exports, Imports and Firm Survival: First Evidence for Manufacturing Enterprises in Germany," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Microeconometrics of International Trade, chapter 10, pages 341-367, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    14. Fulvio Castellacci, 2014. "Service Firms Heterogeneity, International Collaborations and Export Participation," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 14(2), pages 259-285, June.
    15. Asier Minondo, 2011. "Exporters of services in Spain," Working Papers 2011R04, Orkestra - Basque Institute of Competitiveness.
    16. Yvonne Wolfmayr & Elisabeth Christen & Michael Pfaffermayr, 2013. "Pattern, Determinants and Dynamics of Austrian Service Exports – A Firmlevel Analysis," FIW Research Reports series IV-005, FIW.
    17. Markus Kelle & Jörn Kleinert & Horst Raff & Farid Toubal, 2013. "Cross-border and Foreign Affiliate Sales of Services: Evidence from German Microdata," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(11), pages 1373-1392, November.
    18. Joachim Wagner, 2014. "Exports, foreign direct investments and productivity: are services firms different?," The Service Industries Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(1), pages 24-37, January.
    19. Cenk Gokce ADAS, 2016. "Exporting Firms, Productivity And Profitabiliy: A Survey Of The Evidence From Manufacturing Industries," Proceedings of International Academic Conferences 3606362, International Institute of Social and Economic Sciences.
    20. Alexander Vogel & Joachim Wagner, 2021. "Robust Estimates of Exporter Productivity Premia in German Business Services Enterprises," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Joachim Wagner (ed.), MICROECONOMETRIC STUDIES OF FIRMS’ IMPORTS AND EXPORTS Advanced Methods of Analysis and Evidence from German Enterprises, chapter 14, pages 239-263, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..

    More about this item

    Keywords

    business services firms; France; UK; exports; self-selection; Germany;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • D21 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Theory
    • L80 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - General

    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:iza:izadps:dp5147. 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: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.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.