Measuring export support performance in Slovenia

Export support represents one of the many activities in the framework of commercial diplomacy. It has been used by governments for decades in order to boost exports and, consequently, economic growth. However, is governmental involvement in supporting exporters justified? Despite some differing opinions between commentators, many countries have been practising this kind of support extensively, and attempts have been made to measure the outputs of these activities. In this paper, we argue that measuring the direct effects of export support activities can be difficult, and that the results could be distorted for several reasons. We therefore suggest that focus should instead be devoted to the performance of this kind of support. In this light, a new methodology for measuring export support performance is presented, which has been developed to track results in Slovenia - a small and open economy in Central Europe.