IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/indcch/v34y2025i1p144-170..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Beyond trading: knowledge spillovers and learning-by-exporting in global value chains

Author

Listed:
  • Holger Graf
  • Hoda Mohamed

Abstract

Does exporting intermediate goods induce learning from importers? In this paper, we examine to what extent learning from German industries can be explained by knowledge spillovers, channeled through the export of intermediate goods. Our study is based on a sample of 27 German trade partners in 14 manufacturing industries for the period 2004–2016. Using data on patent citations and trading in intermediate goods, we find support for the widely known “learning-by-exporting” hypothesis. Our analyses reveal that citations to German patents are positively related to exported intermediate goods weighted by German R&D expenditure. The relationship between these spillovers and learning seems to be particularly strong in certain industries. We also show that the level of absorptive capacity of the exporting industry-country plays a positive role in mediating these spillovers.

Suggested Citation

  • Holger Graf & Hoda Mohamed, 2025. "Beyond trading: knowledge spillovers and learning-by-exporting in global value chains," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 34(1), pages 144-170.
  • Handle: RePEc:oup:indcch:v:34:y:2025:i:1:p:144-170.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/icc/dtae029
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    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:oup:indcch:v:34:y:2025:i:1:p:144-170.. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/icc .

    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.