Becchetti L., De Panizza A. and Oropallo F. (2007) Role of industrial district externalities in export and value-added performance: evidence from the population of Italian firms, Regional Studies 41, 601-621. The paper tries to shed light on the export and value-added performance of industrial districts by integrating information on the population of Italian firms (from the ASIA database of the Italian Statistical Institute) with balance sheet data for all limited-liability companies in selected manufacturing industries. The findings show that firms located in industrial districts (specialized or not in the leading manufacturing activity of the district) export more and have higher added value than firms located elsewhere, net of the impact of relevant controls. The robustness check undertaken on the agglomeration-performance nexus detects, as expected, a significant relationship between dichotomous district indicators and (global and industry-specific) continuous measures of agglomeration and specialization. Export and value-added performance results are confirmed when proxying location in industrial districts with these continuous variables and when considering the weight of subcontracting and outsourcing activities of productive units as additional controls. Becchetti L., De Panizza A. et Oropallo F. (2007) Le role des effets externes industriels dans les performances des exportations et de la valeur ajoutee: des preuves aupres des entreprises italiennes, Regional Studies 41, 601-621. Cet article cherche a eclaircir les performances des exportations et de la valeur ajoutee des districts industriels en integrant des donnees aupres du parc d'entreprises italiennes (la base de donnees ASIA de l'Institut italien de la statistique) a un bilan pour toute societe a responsabilite limitee dans certains secteurs industriels. Il s'avere que les entreprises situees dans des districts industriels (qu'elles se specialisent dans l'activite phare industrielle du district ou non) exportent plus et jouissent d'une valeur ajoutee plus elevee que ne le font les entreprises situees ailleurs, compte tenu de l'impact des controles en cours. Le controle de solidite fait sur la connexion agglomeration-performances laisse voir, comme prevu, un important rapport entre des indicateurs dichotomiques des districts et des mesures d'agglomeration et de specialisation continues (a la fois globales et specifiques). Si l'on assume des emplacements dans des districts industriels a partir de ces variables continues, et que l'on considere le poids de la sous-traitance et des approvisionnements externes des etablissements productifs comme des controles supplementaires, les performances des exportations et de la valeur ajoutee sont confirmees. Mesures d'agglomeration geographique Districts industriels Performances des exportations Becchetti L., De Panizza A. und Oropallo F. (2007) Die Rolle der Externalitaten von industriellen Bezirken fur die Export- und Wertsteigerungsleistung: Belege aus der Bevolkerung italienischer Firmen, Regional Studies 41,...

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In this paper we use firm-level data on the universe of Italian manufacturing multiproduct exporters to test whether demand shocks in export markets lead multi-product exporters to increase their productivity. The main mechanism behind the documented productivity gains is the reallocation of resources across products within firms (Mayer et al., 2014 and 2016). Intuitively, the increased demand stemming from foreign markets will induce firms to adjust their product-mix by moving inputs from low to high productive/profitable uses. We find that these productivity gains are significant and account for about 30 per cent of aggregate productivity growth in the manufacturing sector.