The Export-Productivity Link in Brazilian Manufacturing Firms
This paper explores the link between exports and total factor productivity in Brazilian manufacturing firms over the period 2000–08. The Brazilian experience is instructive, as it is a case of an economy that expanded aggregate exports significantl...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2015
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2015/07/24775845/export-productivity-link-brazilian-manufacturing-firms http://hdl.handle.net/10986/22445 |
| Summary: | This paper explores the link between
exports and total factor productivity in Brazilian
manufacturing firms over the period 2000–08. The Brazilian
experience is instructive, as it is a case of an economy
that expanded aggregate exports significantly, but with
stagnant aggregate growth in total factor productivity. The
paper first estimates firm-level total factor productivity
under alternative assumptions (exogenous and endogenous law
of motion for productivity) following a GMM procedure. In
turn, the analysis uses stochastic dominance techniques to
assess whether the ex ante most productive firms are those
that start exporting (self-selection hypothesis). Finally,
the paper tests whether exporting boosts firms’ total factor
productivity growth (learning-by-exporting hypothesis) using
matching techniques to control for the possibility that
selection into exports may not be a random process. The
results confirm the self-selection hypothesis and show that
starting to export yields additional growth in total factor
productivity that emerges since the firm’s first year of
exporting but lasts only one year. Further, this extra total
factor productivity growth is much higher under the
assumption of an endogenous law of motion for productivity,
which reinforces the importance of accounting for firm
export status to study the evolution of productivity. |
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