Learning by Exporting and High-tech Capital Deepening in Singapore Manufacturing Industries, 1974-2006

A number of fundamental factors enhance the growth of industries’ productivity. Among others, the export-led and high-tech capital deepening strategies are widely adopted by developing economies. This paper attempts to empirically investigate the extent to which both industrial development policies affect the total factor productivity growth (TFPG) in Singapore manufacturing industries from 1974 to 2006. Using the panel data estimations, I find that both development strategies bring about TFPG via non-neutral technological growth, and the former more largely explains TFPG than does the latter. The present study captures the measure of learning by exporting by the lagged export intensity and therefore contributes to the literature, in which only whether or not firms are active in export markets is conventionally employed. Methodologically, my main contributions are a more detailed treatment of (non-neutral) technological changes, and an improved measure of export intensity.