文档介绍：De Economist (2010) 158:295–322
DOI -010-9147-0 © Springer 2010
DE ECONOMIST 158, NO. 3, 2010
EXPORTS AND PRODUCTIVITY SELECTION EFFECTS
FOR DUTCH FIRMS∗∗∗
BY
∗∗∗
HENK . KOX , HUGO ROJAS-ROMAGOSA
Summary
The paper tests whether recent theories of international trade with heterogeneous firms can explain
the export patterns in Dutch firm- and plant- level data in manufacturing and services. Recent
trade models with heterogeneous firms predict that the export decision of firms is affected by
sunk entry costs in foreign markets, with only the most productive firms self-selecting into exports.
We test a latent variable model of the export decision by probit regressions and standard OLS
panel regressions. Our results support the self-selection prediction. The process further appears
to be conditioned by scale effects, market structure and multinational affiliation. Regarding alter-
native explanations, we do not find evidence for the learning-by-exporting hypothesis, even when
controlling for the firm’s distance to the international productivity frontier.
Key words: heterogeneous firms, productivity, exports, FDI, firm self selection
JEL code(s): D21, D24, F14, F23, L1
1 INTRODUCTION
The international trade literature used to pay no attention to individual firm
characteristics. The assumed trading agent was modelled at best as a repre-
sentative firm. This approach was radically changed by the empirical research
of Bernard and Jensen (1995, 1999). These authors analyzed microeconom-
ic firm-level data for the US and found significant economic performance
∗
herlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis, e-mail: .******@
∗∗
Corresponding author: H. Rojas-Romagosa, herlands Bureau for Economic Policy
Analysis, The Hague, herlands, e-mail: -******@
∗∗∗
ments and inputs were received from: Eric Bartelsman, Mathilde Bombardini,
Steven Brakman, Rosario Crino, Joze Damijan, Harry Garretsen, Stefanie Haller, Juan