Consisting of teams working with firm level data, the International Study Group on Exports and Productivity has used comparable micro level panel data for 14 countries and a set of identically specified empirical models to investigate the relationship between exports and productivity. The...

"Do firms in developing countries shift trade towards developed economies as a result of high economic growth? The matched customs-manufacturing firm data used in this study confront this hypothesized link with empirical evidence. Our analysis reveals a rising low-income country trade share...

Innovation is a key driver of firm productivity, especially in the electronics industry. This paper looks into the nature of innovation by categorizing it into quality-improving and costreducing types and estimating a dynamic structural model incorporating firm export, quality innovation, and...

This paper classifies innovation as quality-improving or cost-reducing and estimates a dynamic model incorporating firm export, quality innovation, and cost innovation decisions. Estimation results show that export, quality innovation, and cost innovation increase next-period firm productivity...

While many studies explain the correlation between firm-level productivity and export status entirely by better firms self-selecting into exporting, a few studies find evidence of reverse causation. Especially in developing or transition economies, exporters seem to improve performance after...

Proponents of trade liberalization argue that it will force firms to produce closer to the production possibility frontier and that the frontier will move out faster. In particular, plants that export will achieve a higher productivity level. However intuitive the argument, empirical evidence is...

We evaluate the impact of the programs delivered by the Canadian Trade Commissioner Service (TCS) on export performance by Canadian firms. We draw on a unique set of microdata created by linking three separate firm-level databases: Statistics Canada's Exporter Register and its Business Register,...