Exporting and performance: evidence from Chilean plants

Recent empirical evidence documents the superior characteristics of exporters relative to non-exporters. Three explanations for this phenomenon have been proposed: self-selection; learning-by-exporting; and conscious self-selection. We test these three hypotheses using plant-level data from Chile. We find that plants that enter international markets show superior initial performance compared with non-exporters, consistent with self-selection; we observe increases in productivity after plants begin to export, which is consistent with learning-by-exporting. We also find strong evidence supporting the idea that self-selection is a conscious process by which plants increase productivity with the purpose of becoming exporters.