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Exporting and Productivity

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Author Info
Andrew B. Bernard
J. Bradford Jensen

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Abstract

Exporting is often touted as a way to increase economic growth. This paper examines whether exporting has played any role in increasing productivity growth in U.S. manufacturing. Contemporaneous levels of exports and productivity are indeed positively correlated across manufacturing industries. However, tests on industry data show causality from productivity to exporting but not the reverse. While exporting plants have substantially higher productivity levels, we find no evidence that exporting increases plant productivity growth rates. However, within the same industry, exporters do grow faster than non-exporters in terms of both shipments and employment. We show that exporting is associated with the reallocation of resources from less efficient to more efficient plants. In the aggregate, these reallocation effects are quite large, making up over 40% of total factor productivity growth in the manufacturing sector. Half of this reallocation to more productive plants occurs within industries and the direction of the reallocation is towards exporting plants. The positive contribution of exporters even shows up in import-competing industries and non-tradable sectors. The overall contribution of exporters to manufacturing productivity growth far exceeds their shares of employment and output.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 7135.

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Date of creation: May 1999
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:7135

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
F10 - International Economics - - Trade - - - General
F43 - International Economics - - Macroeconomic Aspects of International Trade and Finance - - - Economic Growth of Open Economies

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Full references

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(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. By Gunnar Jonsson & Arvind Subramanian, 2001. "Dynamic Gains from Trade: Evidence from South Africa," IMF Staff Papers, Palgrave Macmillan Journals, vol. 48(1), pages 8. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  2. Joze P. Damijan & Crt Kostevc, 2005. "Performance on Exports: Continuous Productivity Improvements or Capacity Utilization," LICOS Discussion Papers 16305, LICOS - Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance, K.U.Leuven. [Downloadable!]
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  7. Baldwin, John R. & Gu, Wulong, 2006. "Competition, Firm Turnover and Productivity Growth," Economic Analysis (EA) Research Paper Series 2006042e, Statistics Canada, Analytical Studies Branch. [Downloadable!]
  8. Haltiwanger, John & Kugler, Adriana & Kugler, Maurice & Micco, Alejandro & Pagés, Carmen, 2004. "Effects of Tariffs and Real Exchange Rates on Job Reallocation:Evidence from Latin America," Discussion Paper Series In Economics And Econometrics 0410, Economics Division, School of Social Sciences, University of Southampton. [Downloadable!]
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  9. Sanghoon Ahn & Kyoji Fukao & Hyeog Ug Kwon, 2005. "The Internationalization and Performance of Korean and Japanese Firms: An Empirical Analysis Based on Micro-data," Discussion papers 05008, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI). [Downloadable!]
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  12. Kathuria, Sanjay & Martin, Will & Bhardwaj, Anjali, 2001. "Implications for South Asian countries for abolishing the Multifibre Arrangement," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2721, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
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  14. Chin Hee Hahn, 2004. "Exporting and Performance of Plants: Evidence from Korean Manufacturing," NBER Working Papers 10208, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  15. Baldwin, John R. & Gu, Wulong, 2004. "Concurrence industrielle, évolution des parts de marché et croissance de la productivité," Série de documents de recherche sur l'analyse économique (AE) 2004021f, Statistics Canada, Direction des études analytiques. [Downloadable!]
  16. Baldwin, John R. & Gu, Wulong, 2004. "Industrial Competition, Shifts in Market Share and Productivity Growth," Economic Analysis (EA) Research Paper Series 2004021e, Statistics Canada, Analytical Studies Branch. [Downloadable!]
  17. Andrew B. Bernard & Jonathan Eaton & J. Bradford Jenson & Samuel Kortum, 2000. "Plants and Productivity in International Trade," NBER Working Papers 7688, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  18. Sanghoon Ahn & nd Jong-Wha Lee, 2007. "Integration and Growth in East Asia," IMES Discussion Paper Series 07-E-14, Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies, Bank of Japan. [Downloadable!]
  19. Elio Londero, 2001. "The alleged countercyclical nature of Argentina's exports of manufactures," Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 10(2), pages 151-173, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  24. Sanghoon Ahn, 2004. "Global Competition, Technology Spillovers and Firm Dynamics:," Econometric Society 2004 Far Eastern Meetings 793, Econometric Society. [Downloadable!]
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