荷兰公司的出口和生产率选择效应外文原文.pdfVIP

De Economist (2010) 158:295–322 DOI 10.1007/s10645-010-9147-0 © Springer 2010 DE ECONOMIST 158, NO. 3, 2010 EXPORTS AND PRODUCTIVITY SELECTION EFFECTS FOR DUTCH FIRMS∗∗∗ BY HENK L.M. 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 ∗ CPB Nethe