Economic performance and international trade engagement: the case of Portuguese manufacturing firms

Armando Silva (), Óscar Afonso () and Ana Paula Africano ()
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Óscar Afonso: CEF.UP and Faculdade de Economia, Universidade do Porto

FEP Working Papers from Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto

Abstract: By combining economic and financial data for Portuguese manufacturing firms with data of their exports and imports, we uncover some aspects of the relationship between international trade engagement and firms’ performance. In line with recent theoretical and empirical developments in the international trade literature: (i) we testify that Portuguese international trade is highly concentrated, especially on the import side, and both in inter- and intra-sector terms; (ii) we corroborate previous studies and theses according to which two-way traders outperform only importers, only exporters and above all domestic firms; (iii) we find that the greater the diversification of markets and goods (especially with regard to imports) the better the performance achieved by internationalized firms; (iv) we also present evidence that destination markets, for exports, and, origin markets, for imports, are also important in explaining the performance of firms.

Keywords: International trade; Firm performance; Diversification (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C20 F14 F23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-int
Date: 2010-04
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Related works:
Working Paper: Economic performance and international trade engagement: the case of Portuguese manufacturing firms (2011)
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Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:por:fepwps:369

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