Who are pure exporters?

Abstract

The existing literature establishes the pattern that exporters in developed countries sell most of their output in their own domestic markets; however, recent evidence suggests that the export intensity distributions of 47 countries exhibit peaks at each end. In this study, we study the characteristics of pure exporters, namely exporters at the right-hand peak of the distribution. We use Thailand's firm-level panel data covering the period from 2007 through 2017 to estimate factors that explain the likelihood that a firm self-selects to be a pure exporter. We do not find evidence that firm-level productivity can explain the decision to become a pure exporter. Rather, the main factors that determine the decision are the capital-labour ratio, the amount of labour, foreign ownership, investment promotion and firm age.