How Service Inputs Influence Export Dynamics? Experience of Manufacturing Firms from Developing Countries

Sonia Pant and Debashis Chakraborty ()
Additional contact information
Sonia Pant: Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), Delhi, India
Debashis Chakraborty: Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), Delhi, India

No 2475, Working Papers from Indian Institute of Foreign Trade

Abstract: A major section of the existing literature on export behaviour of firms does not consider services as a source of heterogeneity. However, over the last few decades the manufacturing sector has witnessed increasing use of services inputs, especially in case of exporting firms, across the development spectrum. This paper proposes a theoretical basis for this trend by adapting the existing literature to the services context. An empirical analysis involving developing country firms by using the World Bank Enterprise Survey (WBES) database confirms that exports from manufacturing firms are positively influenced by the use of services inputs, both at the intensive and extensive margins. The empirical results underline that services input use in manufacturing could be a source of heterogeneity in determining export behaviour of these firms. It is further noted that services such as transport & communication services, IT services, R&D services, legal and related services play an important role in determining the decision to enter the export market, while they do not play a significant role impacting the intensive margin. A key policy implication for developing countries is that efficiency enhancing reforms, covering the unshackling of services sector, will go a long way in promoting manufacturing competitiveness and export performance.

Keywords: Services imports; Cross-Border Supply; Internet usage; Service Trade Barriers (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F13 F14 F23 L80 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 45 pages
Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
ftp://203.190.248.10/RePEc/ift/workingpapers/EC-24-75.pdf First version, November , 2024 (application/pdf)

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: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ift:wpaper:2475

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Indian Institute of Foreign Trade Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by S. Balasubramanian ().