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Foreign Market Competition as a Determinant of Exporter Performance: Evidence from Slovenian Manufacturing Firms

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  • Črt Kostevc

Abstract

Most studies on the link between exporting status and firm productivity find no evidence of learning‐by‐exporting, whereas self‐selection of more productive firms into exporting is most often confirmed. Furthermore, empirical tests of the learning‐by‐exporting hypothesis rarely rely on a specific learning mechanism and instead estimate very general tests of the effects of exporting on improvements of firm efficiency. Lack of explicit controls for specific learning mechanisms in turn biases the empirical estimates against finding the learning effects. Here I undertake a more targeted approach to learning‐by‐exporting by using data on Slovenian manufacturing enterprises between 1994 and 2002 to explore a specific channel for learning in the export markets. Using a variety of empirical tests, I show that competition in exporting markets serves as an added criterion in firm self‐selection as only the most productive and fastest growing firms choose to enter more competitive foreign markets. Once home‐market competition is explicitly controlled, a significant productivity adjustment effect of exporting firms in response to intensification of export market competition is revealed. Crucially, this provides tentative evidence of learning‐by‐exporting, which has so far been elusive in the relevant literature.

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  • Črt Kostevc, 2009. "Foreign Market Competition as a Determinant of Exporter Performance: Evidence from Slovenian Manufacturing Firms," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(6), pages 888-913, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:worlde:v:32:y:2009:i:6:p:888-913
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9701.2009.01177.x
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    Cited by:

    1. Catelén, Ana Laura, 2017. "Perfiles de empresas exportadoras. El caso de Mar del Plata," Nülan. Deposited Documents 2860, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Sociales, Centro de Documentación.
    2. Eric E. O. Opoku & Isabel K. M. Yan & Kate Hynes, 2020. "Reaching up and reaching out: The impact of competition on firms’ productivity and export decisions," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(1), pages 69-101, February.
    3. Carlo Reggiani & Yevgeniya Shevtsova, 2018. "Trade and Productivity in a Transition Economy: the Role of Industry and Export Destination," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 395-428, September.
    4. Shevtsova, Yevgeniya, 2015. "International Trade and Productivity: The Role of Industry and Export Destination," MPRA Paper 69793, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Vincenzo Verardi & Joachim Wagner, 2021. "Productivity Premia for German Manufacturing Firms Exporting to the Euro-area and Beyond: First Evidence from Robust Fixed Effects Estimations," 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 7, pages 87-109, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    6. 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..
    7. Armando Silva & Óscar Afonso & Ana Paula Africano, 2010. "Do Portuguese manufacturing firms self select to exports?," FEP Working Papers 371, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.

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