Firm heterogeneity and aggregate business services exports: Micro evidence from Belgium, France, Germany and Spain

This paper uses detailed micro data on service exports at the firm-destination-service level to analyse the role of firm heterogeneity in shaping aggregate service exports in Belgium, France, Germany and Spain from 2003 to 2007. We decompose the level and the growth of aggregate service exports into different trade margins paying special attention to firm heterogeneity within countries. We find that the weak export growth of France is at least partly due to poor performance by small exporters. By contrast, small exporters are the most dynamic contributors to the aggregate exports of Belgium, G... Mehr ...

Verfasser: Ariu, Andrea
Biewen, Elena
Blank, Sven
Gaulier, Guillaume
González, María Jesus
Meinen, Philipp
Mirza, Daniel
Martín, Cesar
Tello, Patry
Dokumenttyp: doc-type:workingPaper
Erscheinungsdatum: 2017
Verlag/Hrsg.: Frankfurt a. M.: European Central Bank (ECB)
Schlagwörter: ddc:330 / F14 / service exports / firm heterogeneity / cross-country micro data study
Sprache: Englisch
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-26996991
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
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Link(s) : http://hdl.handle.net/10419/175721

This paper uses detailed micro data on service exports at the firm-destination-service level to analyse the role of firm heterogeneity in shaping aggregate service exports in Belgium, France, Germany and Spain from 2003 to 2007. We decompose the level and the growth of aggregate service exports into different trade margins paying special attention to firm heterogeneity within countries. We find that the weak export growth of France is at least partly due to poor performance by small exporters. By contrast, small exporters are the most dynamic contributors to the aggregate exports of Belgium, Germany and Spain. Our results highlight the importance of firm heterogeneity in understanding aggregate export growth.