Competition and product mix adjustment of multi-product exporters: Evidence from Belgium

This paper studies the effects of competition in a destination market on the product sales distribution of Belgian multi-product firms using the framework of Mayer et al. (2014). We show that in high competition markets multi-product firms export relatively more of their core products thus skewing the sales distribution towards the best-performing varieties of the firm. A calibrated fit indicates that the general productivity effects that are associated with this skewness reaction are potentially large as firms adjust their production process to accommodate the increased demand for its core pr... Mehr ...