Exporting and Firm Performance: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment
We conduct a randomized experiment that generates exogenous variation in the access to foreign markets for rug producers in Egypt. Combined with detailed survey data, we causally identify the impact of exporting on firm performance. Treatment firms report 16–26% higher profits and exhibit large impr...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
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Oxford University Press (OUP)
2018
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/113690 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9367-5688 |
| _version_ | 1811078885494751232 |
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| author | Khandelwal, Amit K. Osman, Adam Atkin, David G |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Economics |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Economics Khandelwal, Amit K. Osman, Adam Atkin, David G |
| author_sort | Khandelwal, Amit K. |
| collection | MIT |
| description | We conduct a randomized experiment that generates exogenous variation in the access to foreign markets for rug producers in Egypt. Combined with detailed survey data, we causally identify the impact of exporting on firm performance. Treatment firms report 16–26% higher profits and exhibit large improvements in quality alongside reductions in output per hour relative to control firms. These findings do not simply reflect firms being offered higher margins to manufacture high-quality products that take longer to produce. Instead, we find evidence of learning-by-exporting whereby exporting improves technical efficiency. First, treatment firms have higher productivity and quality after controlling for rug specifications. Second, when asked to produce an identical domestic rug using the same inputs and same capital equipment, treatment firms produce higher quality rugs despite no difference in production time. Third, treatment firms exhibit learning curves over time. Finally, we document knowledge transfers with quality increasing most along the specific dimensions that the knowledge pertained to. JEL Codes: F10, F14, D24. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T11:06:52Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/113690 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T11:06:52Z |
| publishDate | 2018 |
| publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1136902022-09-27T17:13:58Z Exporting and Firm Performance: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment Khandelwal, Amit K. Osman, Adam Atkin, David G Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Economics Atkin, David G We conduct a randomized experiment that generates exogenous variation in the access to foreign markets for rug producers in Egypt. Combined with detailed survey data, we causally identify the impact of exporting on firm performance. Treatment firms report 16–26% higher profits and exhibit large improvements in quality alongside reductions in output per hour relative to control firms. These findings do not simply reflect firms being offered higher margins to manufacture high-quality products that take longer to produce. Instead, we find evidence of learning-by-exporting whereby exporting improves technical efficiency. First, treatment firms have higher productivity and quality after controlling for rug specifications. Second, when asked to produce an identical domestic rug using the same inputs and same capital equipment, treatment firms produce higher quality rugs despite no difference in production time. Third, treatment firms exhibit learning curves over time. Finally, we document knowledge transfers with quality increasing most along the specific dimensions that the knowledge pertained to. JEL Codes: F10, F14, D24. 2018-02-15T19:12:19Z 2018-02-15T19:12:19Z 2017-02 2018-02-15T17:19:12Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0033-5533 1531-4650 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/113690 Atkin, David et al. “Exporting and Firm Performance: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 132, 2 (February 2017): 551–615 © 2017 The Authors https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9367-5688 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/QJE/QJX002 The Quarterly Journal of Economics Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ application/pdf Oxford University Press (OUP) Oxford University Press |
| spellingShingle | Khandelwal, Amit K. Osman, Adam Atkin, David G Exporting and Firm Performance: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment |
| title | Exporting and Firm Performance: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment |
| title_full | Exporting and Firm Performance: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment |
| title_fullStr | Exporting and Firm Performance: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment |
| title_full_unstemmed | Exporting and Firm Performance: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment |
| title_short | Exporting and Firm Performance: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment |
| title_sort | exporting and firm performance evidence from a randomized experiment |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/113690 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9367-5688 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT khandelwalamitk exportingandfirmperformanceevidencefromarandomizedexperiment AT osmanadam exportingandfirmperformanceevidencefromarandomizedexperiment AT atkindavidg exportingandfirmperformanceevidencefromarandomizedexperiment |