TY  - JOUR
AU  - Aw,Bee Yan
AU  - Chung,Sukkyun
AU  - Roberts,Mark J.
TI  - Productivity and the Decision to Export: Micro Evidence from Taiwan and South Korea
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 6558
PY  - 1998
Y2  - May 1998
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w6558
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w6558.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Mark J. Roberts
Department of Economics
513 Kern Graduate Building
Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA 16802
Tel: 814/863-1535
Fax: 814/863-4775
E-Mail: mroberts@psu.edu
AB  - While there is widespread empirical evidence indicating exporting producers have higher productivity than nonexporters, the mechanisms that generate this pattern are less clear.  One view is that exporters acquire knowledge of new production methods, inputs, and product designs from their international contacts, and this learning results in higher productivity for exporters relative to their more insulated domestic counterparts. Alternatively, the higher productivity of exporters may simply reflect the self-selection of more efficient producers into a highly competitive export market. In this paper we use micro data collected in the manufacturing censuses in South Korea and Taiwan to study the linkages between a producer's total factor productivity and choice to participate in the export market. We find differences between the countries in the importance of selection and learning forces. In Taiwan, transitions of firms in and out of the export market reflect systematic variations in productivity as predicted by self-selection models.  Firms with higher productivity, ex ante, tend to enter the export market and exporters with low productivity tend to exit. Moreover, in several industries, entry into the export market is followed by relative productivity improvements, a result consistent with learning-by-exporting forces.  In South Korea, the evidence of self-selection on the basis of productivity is much weaker. In addition, unlike Taiwan, we find no significant productivity changes following entry or exit from the export market that are consistent with learning from exporting. Comparison of the two countries suggests that in Korea factors other than production efficiency play a more prominent role as determinants determinants of the export decision.
ER  -