The impact of export promotion on export market entry

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Broocks, Annette; Van Biesebroeck, Johannes
• 署名单位: Vienna University of Economics & Business; KU Leuven; Centre for Economic Policy Research - UK
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-1996
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jinteco.2017.03.009
• 发表日期: 2017
• 页码: 19-33
• 关键词: International trade; Trade policy; Export market entry

摘要

For small open economies, it is essential that many firms find their way to the export market and most governments provide some form of export promotion assistance. We use detailed firm-level data for Flanders, the largest region in Belgium, to evaluate whether its program raises firms' propensity to start exporting outside the EU single market. We find robust evidence for such an effect by relying on the selection-on-observables assumption which we implement using various estimators. We address a likely upward bias due to self-selection into support using two strategies: (i) focus on sub-samples of firms where endogenous selection into treatment is less likely, and (ii) use firms that receive the weakest form of support as controls for firms receiving more extensive support. The effects remain positive and statistically significant, but are smaller in magnitude and in the second case estimated much less precisely. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.