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Preparing for export opportunities

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  • Labanca, Claudio
  • Molina, Danielken
  • Muendler, Marc-Andreas

Abstract

This paper investigates how firms prepare their workforce to export. We employ a novel identification strategy to isolate how a firm’s hiring decision at home responds to export opportunities that arise from exogenous changes to product demand abroad. Combining Brazilian exporter and linked employer–employee data, we show that firms act on better chances to export by hiring workers with prior experience at exporting firms. We find that firms concentrate this preparatory hiring of experts in skilled blue-collar occupations and that firms separate from the previously hired experts when the predicted export-market participation fails to materialize. The evidence is consistent with the tenet that a few exporting experts in select occupations shape a firm’s competitive advantage.
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  • Labanca, Claudio & Molina, Danielken & Muendler, Marc-Andreas, 2024. "Preparing for export opportunities," University of California at San Diego, Economics Working Paper Series qt2cg9k301, Department of Economics, UC San Diego.
    • Handle: RePEc:cdl:ucsdec:qt2cg9k301
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    JEL classification:

    • F12 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Models of Trade with Imperfect Competition and Scale Economies; Fragmentation
    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • F16 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade and Labor Market Interactions

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