Aggregate exports are highly concentrated in a small group of firms, which are generally more productive than other firms. This column shows that productivity shocks generate different responses of aggregate exports depending on the characteristics of the whole productivity distribution of active firms. Most of the action is driven by superstar firms. Aggregate exports grow considerably more if productivity shocks are concentrated among top performers than across the whole population of firms. This has important implications for the design of export support and industrial policies.

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16 December 2024

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Vox EU

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https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/high-moments-superstar-exporters

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This publication comes under the following theme: Global firms