Firm heterogeneity and exports in Portugal: identifying export potential

For Melitz (2003), the driving force behind a firm’s decision to export is productivity. If firms pass the productivity cut-off, they all export. Nonetheless, empirical studies show that a substantial share of high-productive firms do not export. Using a dataset that covers Portuguese non-financial...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Torres, Frederico Oliveira (author)
Format: masterThesis
Language:eng
Published: 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10362/66772
Country:Portugal
Oai:oai:run.unl.pt:10362/66772
Description
Summary:For Melitz (2003), the driving force behind a firm’s decision to export is productivity. If firms pass the productivity cut-off, they all export. Nonetheless, empirical studies show that a substantial share of high-productive firms do not export. Using a dataset that covers Portuguese non-financial firms, between 2010 and 2016, we assess which factors determine the export decision, besides productivity. According to our results, firm’s characteristics, such as size, turnover, import as well as export status, age, worker skills and knowledge agglomeration, are crucial in the process of internationalisation of firms.