Why Learning by Exporting May Not Be As Common As You Think and What It Means for Policy

International trade economists are convinced that there is a two-way relationship between productivity and exports – not only the most productive firms self-select into export markets, but also exporters improve their technology due to international expansion. In spite of this optimistic view, empirical studies provide only weak (if any) evidence on learning by exporting. This discrepancy between theory and empirics is usually explained with methodological problems. However, there are also some theoretical reasons why one may think that learning by exporting is a wrong or highly limited hypothesis. The paper presents why learning by exporting may not happen and how policymakers can stimulate learning from foreign markets (and hence economic growth).