Firm Heterogeneity and Export Margins – Evidence from Firm-Transaction Matched Data
Keywords:
Firm heterogeneity; Export margin; ProductivityAbstract
This paper investigates what kinds of exporters perform better in extensive (varieties of products) and intensive (exports per product) margins. Using comprehensive within-firm-product panel data of China’s electronics industry, we find that firm productivity matters in both extensive and intensive margins of exports, which provides evidence to the emerging heterogeneous-firm trade theories. Moreover, we note that exporters’ financing ability is influential in the two aspects of performance. To deal with the problems of sample selection, the measures of products, and endogenous causality, we adopt various datasets and variable measurements to implement robustness checks and obtain consistent main findings.
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