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Low-productive exporters are high-quality exporters. Evidence from Germany

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  • Joachim Wagner

    (Leuphana University Lueneburg)

Abstract

A stylized fact from the emerging literature on the micro-econometrics of international trade and a central implication of the heterogeneous firm models from the new new trade theory is that exporters are more productive than non-exporters. However, many firms from the lower end of the productivity distribution are exporters. Germany is a case in point. A recent study reports that these low-productivity exporters are not marginal exporters defined according to the share of exports in total sales, or export participation over time, or the number of goods exported, or the number of countries exported to. This paper documents that low-productive exporters are competitive because they export high-quality goods. The quality of exports is much higher among exporters from the lower end of the productivity distribution than among highly productive exporters.

Suggested Citation

  • Joachim Wagner, 2014. "Low-productive exporters are high-quality exporters. Evidence from Germany," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 34(2), pages 745-756.
    • Handle: RePEc:ebl:ecbull:eb-14-00098
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. 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..
    2. Andrew B. Bernard & J. Bradford Jensen & Stephen J. Redding & Peter K. Schott, 2012. "The Empirics of Firm Heterogeneity and International Trade," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 4(1), pages 283-313, July.
    3. Joachim Wagner, 2016. "Trading Many Goods with Many Countries: Exporters and Importers from German Manufacturing Industries," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Microeconometrics of International Trade, chapter 14, pages 455-476, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    4. Joachim Wagner, 2012. "German multiple-product, multiple-destination exporters: Bernard-Redding-Schott under test," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 32(2), pages 1708-1714.
    5. Horst Raff & Joachim Wagner, 2014. "Foreign Ownership and the Extensive Margins of Exports: Evidence for Manufacturing Enterprises in Germany," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(5), pages 579-591, May.
    6. Juan Carlos Hallak & Jagadeesh Sivadasan, 2009. "Firms' Exporting Behavior under Quality Constraints," NBER Working Papers 14928, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Joachim Wagner & Yama Temouri, 2021. "Do Outliers and Unobserved Heterogeneity Explain the Exporter Productivity Premium? Evidence from France, Germany and the United Kingdom," 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 13, pages 223-236, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    8. Joachim Wagner, 2013. "Are low-productive exporters marginal exporters? Evidence from Germany," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 33(1), pages 467-481.
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    13. Stefan Baumgärtner & Alexandra Klein & Denise Thiel & Klara Winkler, 2015. "Ramsey Discounting of Ecosystem Services," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 61(2), pages 273-296, June.
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    16. Anja Malchin & Ramona Voshage, 2009. "Official Firm Data for Germany," Schmollers Jahrbuch : Journal of Applied Social Science Studies / Zeitschrift für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, vol. 129(3), pages 501-513.
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    Cited by:

    1. Arijit Mukherjee & Umut Erksan Senalp, 2021. "Firm‐productivity and cross border merger," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(4), pages 838-859, September.
    2. José Manuel Mansilla-Fernández & Juliette Milgram-Baleix, 2023. "Working capital management, financial constraints and exports: evidence from European and US manufacturers," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 64(4), pages 1769-1810, April.
    3. Joachim Wagner, 2016. "A survey of empirical studies using transaction level data on exports and imports," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 152(1), pages 215-225, February.
    4. Arijit Mukherjee, 2017. "Firm-productivity and export under non-constant marginal costs," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 37(2), pages 911-917.
    5. Joachim Wagner, 2014. "New Data from Official Statistics for Imports and Exports of Goods by German Enterprises," Schmollers Jahrbuch : Journal of Applied Social Science Studies / Zeitschrift für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, vol. 134(3), pages 371-378.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Exports; productivity; low-productive exporters; export quality;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F1 - International Economics - - Trade

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