Does Destination Matter? Causal Links Between Export Sales and Exporters’ Productivity

The paper empirically explores the microeconomic exporting-productivity links using data from Ukrainian manufacturing and service sectors for the years 2000-2005 distinguishing between various industries and export destinations. Overall, the findings confirm self-selection of more productive firms into exporting showing that firms with higher total factor productivity (TFP) in the year prior to exporting are significantly more likely to engage in international trade. Also, age, and, to some extent, intangible assets positively affect the probability of becoming an exporter. The results also suggest significant positive post-entry productivity effect for the firms that enter export markets and negative productivity effect for the firms that exit. At the industry level the presence of learning-by-exporting effect is not universal and varies between industries and export destinations. Firms in capital-intensive industries that export to the countries of the European Union and other OECD countries experience stronger export-related productivity shocks than firms exporting to other CIS countries. The magnitude of the effect is also positively correlated with the capital intensity of the industries. These findings have important implications for industrial policies, suggesting that programs designed to upgrade firms’ productivity and innovative capabilities should be industry specific. Such policies, should they be implemented, will increase benefits arising from exporting, which should further enhance international competitiveness of Ukrainian firms.