Learning to Export and the Timing of Entry to Export Markets

Nicholas Sheard (1)

1 GREQAM - Groupement de Recherche en Économie Quantitative d'Aix-Marseille

Exporters normally enter their first foreign markets some time after beginning to sell locally, then enter subsequent markets progressively. Standard trade models are essentially static and do not explain these elementary facts about exporting, which can bias the estimation of trade patterns. This paper proposes a model that endogenously generates the timing of entry to new export markets. The timing results from a learning mechanism. More productive firms are less sensitive to the learning effect and therefore (1) enter markets more quickly and (2) enter larger markets earlier and smaller markets later. These predictions are confirmed using Swedish firm-level data.

Mots clés: Economie quantitative

Domaines: Sciences de l'Homme et Société; Economies et finances

Nicholas Sheard. Learning to Export and the Timing of Entry to Export Markets. Review of International Economics, 2014, 22 (3), pp.536--560. ⟨10.1111/roie.12132⟩. ⟨hal-01474269⟩