The impact of exporting on firm productivity: a meta-analysis of the learning-by-exporting hypothesis

Pedro S. Martins (1, 2, 3) , Yong Yang (1, 4)

1 School of Business and Management, Queen Mary
2 CEG-IST
3 IZA
4 Brunel University London [Uxbridge]

We conduct a meta-analysis of more than 30 papers that study the causal relationship between exporting and firm productivity. Our main result, robust to different specifications and to different weights for each observation, indicates that the impact of exporting upon productivity is higher for developing than developed economies. We also find that the export effect tends to be higher (1) in the first year that firms start exporting (compared to later years); and (2) when the sample used in the paper is not restricted to matched firms. Moreover, we find no evidence of publication bias.

Mots clés: Productivity; Globalisation; Publication bias; F15; F20

Pedro S. Martins, Yong Yang. The impact of exporting on firm productivity: a meta-analysis of the learning-by-exporting hypothesis. Review of World Economics, 2009, 145 (3), pp.431-445. ⟨10.1007/s10290-009-0021-6⟩. ⟨hal-00535221⟩