Bank Internationalization and Export Propensity: An Analysis on Italian Provinces

Abstract

The main idea of this paper is that bank internationalization might encourage exports as banks’ foreign branches and representative offices provide financial and informational support to exporting firms. This hypothesis has been tested using bank and firm data at Italian province-level between 1993 and 2001. The empirical analysis suggests that there is a positive relationship between bank internationalization and export propensity. The effect seems to be concentrated in the scale and high-technology sectors (according to Pavitt classification), presumably reflecting the greater need for banks’ support in more complex and product-differentiated markets.