Is there Evidence of Learning-by-Exporting in Turkish Manufacturing Industries?

Mahmut Yasar, Philip Garcia, Carl Nelson () and Roderick Rejesus

International Review of Applied Economics, 2007, vol. 21, issue 2, pages 293-305

Abstract: Exporting has always been thought of as one tool to improve productivity and, consequently, to spur economic growth in low- to middle-income economies. However, empirical evidence of this so-called 'learning-by-exporting' effect has been limited. This article determines whether learning-by-exporting is evident in two Turkish manufacturing sectors—the textile and apparel (T&A) and the motor vehicle and parts (MV&P) industries. A semi-parametric estimator that controls for problems associated with simultaneity and unobserved plant heterogeneity is used to test the learning-by-exporting hypothesis. After controlling for these issues, our results suggest statistically stronger learning-by-exporting effects in the T&A than in the MV&P industry. The highly concentrated and capital-intensive nature of the MV&P industry is the main reason for the lower learning-by-exporting effect in this sector. From a policy perspective, this implies that targeting export-enhancing policies to industries with significant learning-by-exporting effects may lead to more productivity gains and would better stimulate an export-led growth.

Keywords: Learning-by-exporting; heterogeneity; productivity; trade liberalization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations View citations in EconPapers (1) Track citations by RSS feed

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02692170701189193 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:irapec:v:21:y:2007:i:2:p:293-305

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/subscription.asp

Access Statistics for this article

International Review of Applied Economics is edited by Malcolm Sawyer, Philip Arestis, Keith Cowling and Ron Smith

More articles in International Review of Applied Economics from Taylor and Francis Journals
Series data maintained by Michael McNulty ().