IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cen/wpaper/01-02.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Exporting and Productivity: The Importance of Reallocation

Author

Listed:
  • Andrew B Bernard
  • J Bradford Jensen

Abstract

Exporting is often touted as a way to increase economic growth. This paper examines whether exporting has played any role in increasing productivity growth in U.S. manufacturing. While exporting plants have substantially higher productivity levels, there is no evidence that exporting increases plant productivity growth rates. However, within the same industry, exporters do grow faster than non-exporters in terms of both shipments and employment. Exporting is associated with the reallocation of resources from less ecient to more ecient plants. In the aggregate, these reallocation eects are quite large, making up over 40% of total factor productivity growth in the manufacturing sector. Half of this reallocation to more productive plants occurs within industries and the direction of the reallocation is towards exporting plants. The positive contribution of exporters also shows up in import-competing industries and non-tradable sectors.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrew B Bernard & J Bradford Jensen, 2001. "Exporting and Productivity: The Importance of Reallocation," Working Papers 01-02, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    • Handle: RePEc:cen:wpaper:01-02
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www2.census.gov/ces/wp/2001/CES-WP-01-02.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andrew Bernard & Joachim Wagner, 1997. "Exports and success in German manufacturing," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 133(1), pages 134-157, March.
    2. Richard Ericson & Ariel Pakes, 1995. "Markov-Perfect Industry Dynamics: A Framework for Empirical Work," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 62(1), pages 53-82.
    3. Olley, G Steven & Pakes, Ariel, 1996. "The Dynamics of Productivity in the Telecommunications Equipment Industry," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 64(6), pages 1263-1297, November.
    4. Jeffrey D. Sachs & Andrew Warner, 1995. "Economic Reform and the Process of Global Integration," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 26(1, 25th A), pages 1-118.
    5. Marin, Dalia, 1992. "Is the Export-Led.Growth Hypothesis Valid for Industrialized Countries?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 74(4), pages 678-688, November.
    6. Andrew B. Bernard & Jonathan Eaton & J. Bradford Jensen & Samuel Kortum, 2003. "Plants and Productivity in International Trade," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(4), pages 1268-1290, September.
    7. Bernard, Andrew B. & Bradford Jensen, J., 1999. "Exceptional exporter performance: cause, effect, or both?," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 1-25, February.
    8. Aw, B. -Y. & Hwang, A. R., 1995. "Productivity and the export market: A firm-level analysis," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 313-332, August.
    9. Andrew B. Bernard & J. Bradford Jensen, 2004. "Why Some Firms Export," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 86(2), pages 561-569, May.
    10. Andrew Bernard & Joachim Wagner, 2001. "Export entry and exit by German firms," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 137(1), pages 105-123, March.
    11. Bee Yan Aw & Xiaomin Chen & Mark J. Roberts, 1997. "Firm-level Evidence on Productivity Differentials, Turnover, and Exports in Taiwanese Manufacturing," NBER Working Papers 6235, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Marc J. Melitz, 2003. "The Impact of Trade on Intra-Industry Reallocations and Aggregate Industry Productivity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 71(6), pages 1695-1725, November.
    13. Roberts, Mark J & Tybout, James R, 1997. "The Decision to Export in Colombia: An Empirical Model of Entry with Sunk Costs," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(4), pages 545-564, September.
    14. Dan Ben-David, 1993. "Equalizing Exchange: Trade Liberalization and Income Convergence," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 108(3), pages 653-679.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Badi H. Baltagi & Peter H. Egger & Michaela Kesina, 2016. "Firm‐Level Productivity Spillovers in China's Chemical Industry: A Spatial Hausman‐Taylor Approach," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(1), pages 214-248, January.
    2. Alvaro Escribano & J. Luis Guasch & Manuel De Orte & Jorge Pena, 2009. "Investment Climate Assessment In Indonesia, Malaysia, The Philippines And Thailand: Results From Pooling Firm-Level Data," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 54(03), pages 335-366.
    3. Torben M. Andersen & Allan Sørensen, 2013. "Product market integration, tax distortions and public sector size," Economics Working Papers 2013-28, Department of Economics and Business Economics, Aarhus University.
    4. Badi Baltagi & Peter Egger & Michaela Kesina, 2015. "Sources of productivity spillovers: panel data evidence from China," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 43(3), pages 389-402, June.
    5. Jens Matthias Arnold & Katrin Hussinger, 2005. "Export Behavior and Firm Productivity in German Manufacturing: A Firm-Level Analysis," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 141(2), pages 219-243, July.
    6. Hertel, Thomas & Hummels, David & Ivanic, Maros & Keeney, Roman, 2007. "How confident can we be of CGE-based assessments of Free Trade Agreements?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 611-635, July.
    7. Torben Andersen & Allan Sørensen, 2007. "Product Market Integration and Income Taxation: Distortions and Gains from Trade," CESifo Working Paper Series 2170, CESifo.
    8. Andersen, Torben M & Sorensen, Allan, 2005. "Product Market Integration, Wages and Inequality," CEPR Discussion Papers 4963, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    9. Facundo Piguillem & Loris Rubini, 2012. "International Trade and the Firm Size Distribution," 2012 Meeting Papers 857, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    10. Thomas W. Hertel, 2006. "A Survey of Findings on the Poverty Impacts of Agricultural Trade Liberalization," The Electronic Journal of Agricultural and Development Economics, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, vol. 3(1), pages 1-26.
    11. Martina Lawless, 2009. "Firm export participation: entry, spillovers and tradability," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 41(5), pages 665-675.
    12. Andersen, Torben M. & Sørensen, Allan, 2007. "Product Market Integration and Labour Markets: Aggregate Gains at the Cost of More Inequality?," IZA Discussion Papers 2556, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Trevor Tombe, 2010. "The Missing Food Problem: How Low Agricultural Imports Contribute to International Income and Productivity Differences," Working Papers tecipa-416, University of Toronto, Department of Economics.
    14. Torben M. Andersen & Allan Sørensen, 2012. "Globalization, Tax Distortions, and Public‐Sector Retrenchment," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 114(2), pages 409-439, June.
    15. Itakura, Ken & Hertel, Thomas & Jeff Reimer, 2003. "The Contribution of Productivity Linkages to the General Equilibrium Analysis of Free Trade Agreements," GTAP Working Papers 1193, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Department of Agricultural Economics, Purdue University.
    16. Torben M. Andersen & Allan Sørensen, 2008. "Product Market Integration and Heterogeneity—Rent Sharing and Pricing to Market," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(2), pages 268-284, May.
    17. Katarzyna Łukiewska & Małgorzata Juchniewicz, 2021. "Identification of the Relationships between Competitive Potential and Competitive Position of the Food Industry in the European Union," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-13, April.
    18. Hansson, Pär & Lundin, Nan Nan, 2003. "Exports as an Indicator on or Promoter of Successful Swedish Manufacturing Firms in the 1990s," Working Paper Series 189, Trade Union Institute for Economic Research.
    19. Sourafel Girma & Avid Greenaway & Richard Kneller, 2004. "Does Exporting Increase Productivity? A Microeconometric Analysis of Matched Firms," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(5), pages 855-866, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tarlok Singh, 2010. "Does International Trade Cause Economic Growth? A Survey," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(11), pages 1517-1564, November.
    2. Andrew B. Bernard & J. Bradford Jensen, 1999. "Exporting and Productivity," NBER Working Papers 7135, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Jens Matthias Arnold & Katrin Hussinger, 2005. "Export Behavior and Firm Productivity in German Manufacturing: A Firm-Level Analysis," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 141(2), pages 219-243, July.
    4. Marian Rizov & Patrick Paul Walsh, 2009. "Productivity and Trade Orientation in UK Manufacturing," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 71(6), pages 821-849, December.
    5. Francesco Serti & Chiara Tomasi, 2008. "Self-Selection and Post-Entry Effects of Exports: Evidence from Italian Manufacturing Firms," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 144(4), pages 660-694, December.
    6. Marian Rizov & Patrick Paul Walsh, 2005. "Linking Productivity to Trade in the Structural Estimation of Production within UK Manufacturing Industries," The Institute for International Integration Studies Discussion Paper Series iiisdp98, IIIS.
    7. Chandan Sharma & Ritesh Kumar Mishra, 2011. "Does export and productivity growth linkage exist? Evidence from the Indian manufacturing industry," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(6), pages 633-652, November.
    8. 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..
    9. Koenig, Pamina & Mayneris, Florian & Poncet, Sandra, 2010. "Local export spillovers in France," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(4), pages 622-641, May.
    10. Dalgic, Basak & Fazlioglu, Burcu & Gasiorek, Michael, 2015. "Costs of trade and self-selection into exporting and importing: The case of Turkish manufacturing firms," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 9, pages 1-28.
    11. Alvarez, Roberto, 2007. "Explaining Export Success: Firm Characteristics and Spillover Effects," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 377-393, March.
    12. Aida Caldera, 2010. "Innovation and exporting: evidence from Spanish manufacturing firms," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 146(4), pages 657-689, December.
    13. Neil Foster-McGregor, 2012. "Innovation and Technology Transfer across Countries," wiiw Research Reports 380, The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw.
    14. Ricardo A. López, 2009. "Do Firms Increase Productivity in Order to Become Exporters?," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 71(5), pages 621-642, October.
    15. Gianmarco Ottaviano & Christian Volpe Martincus, 2011. "SMEs in Argentina: who are the exporters?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 37(3), pages 341-361, October.
    16. Ricardo A. López, 2005. "Trade and Growth: Reconciling the Macroeconomic and Microeconomic Evidence," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(4), pages 623-648, September.
    17. Gopinath, Munisamy & Sheldon, Ian M. & Echeverria, Rodrigo, 2007. "Firm Heterogeneity and International Trade: Implications for Agricultural and Food Industries," Trade Issues Papers 9349, International Agricultural Trade Research Consortium.
    18. Hansen, Thorsten, 2010. "Exports and Productivity: An Empirical Analysis of German and Austrian Firm-Level Performance," Discussion Papers in Economics 11466, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    19. Özler, Sule & Taymaz, Erol & YIlmaz, Kamil, 2009. "History Matters for the Export Decision: Plant-Level Evidence from Turkish Manufacturing Industry," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 479-488, February.
    20. Armando Silva & Óscar Afonso & Ana Paula Africano, 2010. "Do Portuguese manufacturing firms self select to exports?," FEP Working Papers 371, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    CES; economic; research; micro; data; microdata; chief; economist;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:cen:wpaper:01-02. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Dawn Anderson (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cesgvus.html .

    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.