Irish firms' productivity and imported inputs

Emanuele Forlani ()

No 2010015, LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE from Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE)

Abstract: In this paper, we empirically analyze the evolution of firms’ productivity and how the efficiency changes with variations in the inputs’ origin. Using firm-level information on a sample of Irish firms, we assess the importance of the imported inputs’ quota for a firm’s efficiency, as well as starting import activity. The main findings are that an increase in the intensive margin of imports raises firms’ efficiency of domestic firms; in addition heterogeneous effects across firms are detected. Unlike the findings of most of the literature, there is weak evidence of self-selection in import activity; differently from previous research when we introduce fixed effects, the self-selection disappears. Instead, the few observed firms that start importing raise their productivity compared to non-importing firms; learning by importing is suspected. The results suggest an important policy implication: policies that favor the imports of intermediates enhance the productivity of domestic firms, making them more competitive in the international markets.

Keywords: firms' productivity; inputs; import; Ireland (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D24 F10 F14 L25 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-04-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eff and nep-int
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

Downloads: (external link)
https://sites.uclouvain.be/core/publications/coredp/coredp2010.html (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Irish Firms’ Productivity and Imported Inputs (2017)
Working Paper: Irish firms’ productivity and Imported Inputs (2012)
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: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cor:louvco:2010015

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE from Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE) Voie du Roman Pays 34, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium). Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Alain GILLIS ().