@techreport{NBERw11111,
 title = "The Foreign Service and Foreign Trade: Embassies as Export Promotion",
 author = "Andrew K. Rose",
 institution = "National Bureau of Economic Research",
 type = "Working Paper",
 series = "Working Paper Series",
 number = "11111",
 year = "2005",
 month = "February",
 URL = "http://www.nber.org/papers/w11111",
 abstract = {As communication costs fall, foreign embassies and consulates have lost much of their role in decision-making and information-gathering. Accordingly, foreign services are increasingly marketing themselves as agents of export promotion. I investigate whether exports are in fact systematically associated with diplomatic representation abroad. I use a recent cross-section of data covering twenty-two large exporters and two-hundred import destinations. Bilateral exports rise by approximately 6-10% for each additional consulate abroad, controlling for a host of other features including reverse causality. The effect varies by exporter, and is non-linear; consulates have smaller effects than the creation of an embassy.},
}