French Exporters and the Global Crisis

Lionel Fontagné (1, 2, 3) , Guillaume Gaulier (4)

1 CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne
2 CEPII - Centre d'Etudes Prospectives et d'Informations Internationales
3 PSE - Paris School of Economics
4 Banque de France

Detailed firm-level data on French exporters suggests most of the trade collapse occurred in exporters' volumes rather than the number of exporters. Small exporters suffered similarly to their larger counterparts. There is clear evidence that the impact was greatest on firms in sectors that rely most heavily on external finance. Thus, the crisis may not have long-lasting effects on aggregate export capacity - the reservoir of small and promising firms has not been decimated- but firms may reorganise to reduce vulnerability to external financing.

Mots clés: Trade collapse; crisis; firms

Domaines: Economies et finances

Lionel Fontagné, Guillaume Gaulier. French Exporters and the Global Crisis. Richard Baldwin. The Great Trade Collapse: Causes, Consequences and Prospects, CEPR, London, pp.143-150, 2009, e-book VOX. ⟨hal-00639845⟩