Exporting and Productivity: Evidence for Egypt and Morocco

Center for European Governance and Economic Development Research Discussion Paper Number 136

38 Pages Posted: 3 Jul 2012

See all articles by Inmaculada Martínez-Zarzoso

Inmaculada Martínez-Zarzoso

University of Goettingen (Göttingen) - School of Law, Economics, Social Sciences; Jaume I University - Department of Economics

Date Written: 2012

Abstract

This paper investigates the link between exporting and importing activities and firm performance using a rich dataset on Egyptian and Moroccan firms. We test the export premium, self-selection and learning-by-exporting hypotheses using a number of firm characteristics. Our analysis also includes importing activities as a source of learning and considers their effects on productivity changes. A differences-in-differences matching estimator is used to address the endogeneity bias of target variables. The main results for Egyptian firms echo those reported for other countries using firm-level data, namely exporters are larger and more productive than non-exporters. In contrast, Moroccan exporters and non-exporters are strikingly similar. More specifically, no evidence is found of pre or post-entry differences in labour productivity for Moroccan firms.

Keywords: firms, new-new trade theory, productivity, exporting, panel data, Egypt, Morocco

JEL Classification: F10, F35

Suggested Citation

Martínez-Zarzoso, Inmaculada, Exporting and Productivity: Evidence for Egypt and Morocco (2012). Center for European Governance and Economic Development Research Discussion Paper Number 136, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2045538 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2045538

Inmaculada Martínez-Zarzoso (Contact Author)

University of Goettingen (Göttingen) - School of Law, Economics, Social Sciences ( email )

Germany

Jaume I University - Department of Economics ( email )

Campus del Riu Sec.
E-12071 Castellon
Spain

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