To export or not to export? The link between the exporter status of a firmand its technical efficiency in Russia’s manufacturing sector

Abstract

Is it generally true that being an exporter for a firm is associated with a higher productivity? We study the relationship between firms’ export status and their technical efficiency in Russian manufacturing sector in 2004-2013 using the data from the Bureau van Dijk database “Ruslana”. To estimate the exporter status effect we apply two methods, both based on the stochastic frontier analysis. The first approach estimates the effect as the marginal effect of the exporter status on technical efficiency. The second approach is based on the propensity score matching of exporting firms with nonexporting firms. We obtain robust results which suggest that the relationship between the exporter status and technical efficiency is positive. In both cases the exporter status’ effect is up to 0.03 (3 p. p.).

Intangible assets and the efficiency of manufacturing firms in the age of digitalisation: the Russian case

“…Several papers shed light on different determinants of technical efficiency. Krasnopeeva et al (2016) investigated the impact of export status for manufacturing firms for 2004-2013. In doing so, they used two approaches based on SFM: the calculation of the marginal effect of the export status and the propensity score matching to compare similar exporting enterprises with non-exporters.…”