No abstract

Are there any factors driving firms' internationalization process other than productivity? By means of a firm-level dataset on manufacturing and production services sectors collected by MET, this paper investigates the export performance of enterprises in Italy in the aftermath of the recent economic crisis. Our results suggest that productivity is not the only (and most important) determinant in this matter. Innovation activity and learning processes are indeed pivotal in boosting enterprises to sell their products abroad and, to a certain extent, in backing their success on foreign markets. In particular, by estimating dynamic probability models as well as Tobit II-Heckman and two-part models, we provide evidence that firm's ability to learn from its past export experiences lowers international trade informal barriers, while its ability to learn thanks to regional and local industry spillovers is important in terms of both extensive and intensive performances on foreign markets.

This paper explores the main drivers of firms’ external competitiveness in times of crisis. We focus on the aftermath of the Great Recession (2008–2015) and present evidence based on a comprehensive survey of Italian companies (the MET dataset). Overall, our results highlight not only the strict correlation between internationalization and innovative activities but also a positive change of attitude of Italian firms towards these strategies. We show that, while structural factors play a key role for external competitiveness, other critical aspects trigger superior performances, especially strategic profiles, technological capabilities, and proactive behaviors such as innovativeness and R&D investment. Importantly, we document disproportionate effects of innovation for smaller and less productive companies. This points at dynamic strategies as a potential tool to fill the gap between larger/more productive companies and the set of less structured firms, a segment representing an ideal target for policy measures.

This paper contributes to the policy discussion on Covid-19 by presenting real-time evidence on the magnitude of the shock for Italian firms. We take advantage of unique panel data on 7,800 companies between January 2020-right before the pandemic-and March of the same year-in the midst of lockdown policies. We then exploit the revision in expectation within this short time window to capture the impact of firms' idiosyncratic shock. Our analysis shows disproportionate effects for internationalized companies and provide some evidence on supply chain contagion. We also document stronger shocks for truly innovative companies and effects on long-run growth operating through the disruption of preexisting R&D plans.

No abstract