Bigsten, A., Collier, P., Dercon, S., Fafchamps, M., Gautier, B., Gunning, J., Oduro, A., Oostendorp, R., Pattillo, C., Söderbom, M., Teal, F. and Zeufack, A. (2004). Do African Manufacturing Firms Learn from Exporting? Journal of Development Studies, 40(3):115--141.
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Affiliated author
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Publication year2004
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JournalJournal of Development Studies
We use firm-level panel data for the manufacturing sector in four African countries to investigate whether exporting impacts on efficiency, and whether efficient firms self-select into the export market. Based on simultaneous estimation of a production function and an export regression, our preferred results indicate significant efficiency gains from exporting, which can be interpreted as learning by exporting. We show that modelling unobserved heterogeneity by a flexible approach is important for deriving this conclusion. A policy implication of our results is that Africa would gain from orientating its manufacturing sector towards exporting. {\textcopyright} 2004 Taylor and Francis Ltd.