Public Programs to Promote Firms' Exports in Developing Countries: Are There Heterogeneous Effects by Size Categories?

Peer Reviewed icon Peer Reviewed
Date issued
Aug 2010
Subject
Trade Facilitation;
Business Development;
Public Administration
JEL code
D21 - Firm Behavior: Theory;
F13 - Trade Policy • International Trade Organizations;
F14 - Empirical Studies of Trade;
H32 - Firm;
H43 - Project Evaluation • Social Discount Rate;
L15 - Information and Product Quality • Standardization and Compatibility;
L25 - Firm Performance: Size, Diversification, and Scope
Country
Argentina
Category
Working Papers
Several countries have implemented programs to support their firms¿ internationalization efforts. Their impacts are likely to be heterogeneous over firm size categories because these programs are primarily intended and expected to benefit smaller companies. Whether this is or not the case is still an open question. In this paper we aim at filling this gap in the literature by providing evidence on the effects of trade promotion programs on the export performance of firms within different size segments using a rich firm-level dataset for Argentina over the period 2002-2006. We find that these effects are indeed larger for smaller firms.