Export Orientation and Productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa

Catherine Pattillo and Taye Mengistae ()

No 2002/089, IMF Working Papers from International Monetary Fund

Abstract: Analysis of firm-level panel data from three sub-Saharan African economies shows that exporting manufacturers have a total factor productivity premium of 11-28 percent. The data do not allow testing of whether these premiums are caused by selection of more efficient producers into exporting or by learning-by-exporting. By thinking about the mechanisms behind selectivity and learning, however, our finding of higher premiums for direct exporters and exporters to outside Africa could be interpreted as being consistent with learning-by-exporting effects. However, if learning-by-exporting is indeed present in the data, we cannot disentangle its effect on productivity from those of more traditionally recognized channels of international technology diffusion.

Keywords: WP; productivity premium; firm age; firms export; Ethiopian firm; productivity equation; Exports; productivity; Africa; learning-by-exporting; direct exporter; Imports; Total factor productivity; Sub-Saharan Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 30
Date: 2002-05-01
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.aspx?sk=15810 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Export Orientation and Productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa (2004)
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:imf:imfwpa:2002/089

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/pubs/ord_info.htm

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IMF Working Papers from International Monetary Fund International Monetary Fund, Washington, DC USA. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Akshay Modi ().