Firms in International Trade

30 Pages Posted: 19 Sep 2007

See all articles by Andrew B. Bernard

Andrew B. Bernard

Dartmouth College - Tuck School of Business; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

J. Bradford Jensen

Georgetown University - McDonough School of Business; Peterson Institute for International Economics

Stephen J. Redding

Princeton University

Peter K. Schott

Yale University - School of Management; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); Yale University - Cowles Foundation

Multiple version iconThere are 3 versions of this paper

Date Written: May 2007

Abstract

Standard models of international trade devote little attention to firms. Yet of the 5.5 million firms operating in the United States in 2000, just 4 percent engaged in exporting, and the top 10 percent of these exporting firms accounted for 96 percent of U.S. exports. Since the mid 1990s, a large number of empirical studies have provided a wealth of information about the important role that firms play in mediating countries' imports and exports. This research, based on micro datasets that track countries' production and trade at the firm level, demonstrates that trading firms differ substantially from firms that solely serve the domestic market. Across a wide range of countries and industries, exporters have been shown to be larger, more productive, more skill- and capital-intensive, and to pay higher wages than non-trading firms. Furthermore, these differences exist even before exporting begins.

Suggested Citation

Bernard, Andrew B. and Jensen, J. Bradford and Redding, Stephen J. and Schott, Peter K., Firms in International Trade (May 2007). US Census Bureau Center for Economic Studies Paper No. CES-WP-07-14, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1015617 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1015617

Andrew B. Bernard (Contact Author)

Dartmouth College - Tuck School of Business ( email )

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J. Bradford Jensen

Georgetown University - McDonough School of Business ( email )

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Peterson Institute for International Economics ( email )

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Stephen J. Redding

Princeton University ( email )

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Peter K. Schott

Yale University - School of Management ( email )

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National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

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