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Marginal Distance: Does Export Experience Reduce Firm Trade Costs?

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  • Lawless, Martina

    (Central Bank of Ireland)

Abstract

Are the costs of exporting to a market reduced if a firm has experience of exporting to a neighbouring market? If so, does this effect operate through reducing en- try barriers or by increasing sales once the firm is operating in the market? This paper examines linkages between current export destinations and entry, sales and exit for new markets. We find that measures of exporting experience in geographically nearby markets increase the probability of entry into a market and reduce the probability of exit. However, these same measures have negative effects on the firm’s export sales in the market. This negative effect on sales is particularly strong for recently entered firms. We interpret this result in the context of the Melitz heterogeneous-firm model of trade by showing that lower fixed costs reduce the entry threshold, but this lower threshold has the effect of allowing lower-sales marginal firms to be present in the market.

Suggested Citation

  • Lawless, Martina, 2011. "Marginal Distance: Does Export Experience Reduce Firm Trade Costs?," Research Technical Papers 2/RT/11, Central Bank of Ireland.
  • Handle: RePEc:cbi:wpaper:2/rt/11
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Lawless, Martina & Siedschlag, Iulia & Studnicka, Zuzanna, 2017. "Expanding and diversifying the manufactured exports of Irish-owned enterprises," Research Series, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), number BKMNEXT335.
    2. Albornoz, Facundo & Calvo Pardo, Héctor F. & Corcos, Gregory & Ornelas, Emanuel, 2012. "Sequential exporting," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(1), pages 17-31.
    3. Eduardo Morales & Gloria Sheu & Andrés Zahler, 2014. "Gravity and Extended Gravity: Using Moment Inequalities to Estimate a Model of Export Entry," NBER Working Papers 19916, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. repec:ilo:ilowps:469183 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Juan Lucio & Raúl Mínguez & Asier Minondo & Francisco Requena, 2016. "Networks and the Dynamics of Firms' Export Portfolio: Evidence for Mexico," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(5), pages 708-736, May.
    6. Shibi He & Volodymyr Lugovskyy, 2018. "Domestic Spillovers and Foreign Networks in Exporting," CAEPR Working Papers 2018-005, Center for Applied Economics and Policy Research, Department of Economics, Indiana University Bloomington.
    7. Ornelas, Emanuel, 2012. "Preferential Trade Agreements and the Labor Market," CEPR Discussion Papers 8805, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    8. Carrère, Céline & Strauss-Kahn, Vanessa, 2014. "Developing Countries Exports Survival in the OECD: Does Experience Matter?," CEPR Discussion Papers 10059, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    9. Salvador Gil-Pareja & Rafael Llorca-Vivero & José Martínez-Serrano, 2015. "The Uneven Impact of Continental Boundaries on Trade," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 26(2), pages 237-257, April.
    10. Araujo, Luis & Mion, Giordano & Ornelas, Emanuel, 2016. "Institutions and export dynamics," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 2-20.
    11. Zhang, Lin & Cui, Lin & Li, Sali & Lu, Jiangyong, 2018. "Who rides the tide of regionalization: Examining the effect of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area on the exports of Chinese firms," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 501-513.
    12. Céline CARRERE & Vanessa STRAUSS-KAHN, 2012. "Exports Dynamics: Raising Developing Countries Exports Survival through Experience," Working Papers P35-A, FERDI.
    13. Chiappini, Raphaël & Jégourel, Yves, 2021. "“The buck stops with the executives”: Assessing the impact of workforce composition and cultural distance on French firms’ exports," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 45-57.
    14. Defever, Fabrice & Heid, Benedikt & Larch, Mario, 2015. "Spatial exporters," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(1), pages 145-156.
    15. Matteo Bugamelli & Andrea Linarello & Roberta Serafini, 2019. "The 'Margin call'. Export experience and firm entry into new export markets," Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) 536, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    16. Lili Wang & Yong Zhao, 2013. "Does Experience Facilitate Entry into New Export Destinations?," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 21(5), pages 36-59, September.
    17. Bedassa Tadesse & Roger White & Elias Shukralla, 2015. "Production Efficiency and the Extensive Margins of U.S. Exporters: An Industry-level Analysis," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 26(5), pages 941-969, November.
    18. Philipp Meinen, 2015. "Sunk costs of exporting and the role of experience in international trade," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 48(1), pages 335-367, February.
    19. Eliane Choquette, 2019. "Import-based market experience and firms’ exit from export markets," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 50(3), pages 423-449, April.
    20. Céline Carrère & Vanessa Strauss-Kahn, 2017. "Export survival and the dynamics of experience," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 153(2), pages 271-300, May.
    21. Per Botolf Maurseth & Hege Medin, 2017. "Market-specific Sunk Export Costs: The Impact of Learning and Spillovers," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(6), pages 1105-1127, June.
    22. Lombardi, Alessia & Verneau, Fabio & Lombardi, Pasquale, 2016. "Development and Trade Competitiveness of the Italian Tomato Sector," Agricultural Economics Review, Greek Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 17(1), January.
    23. Juan de Lucio & Raúl Mínguez & Asier Minondo & Francisco Requena, 2013. "The dynamics of firms’ export portfolio: A network analysis with an application to Mexico and Bulgaria," Working Papers 1316, Department of Applied Economics II, Universidad de Valencia.
    24. Andrew J. Cassey & Katherine N. Schmeiser & Andreas Waldkirch, 2016. "Exporting Spatial Externalities," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 27(4), pages 697-720, September.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Distance; Export performance; Heterogeneous firms;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F10 - International Economics - - Trade - - - General

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