Essays on Exporting Behavior of Firms and on Inflation Persistence

Abstract

Branislav Saxa "Essays on Exporting Behavior of Firms and on Inflation Persistence" Abstrakt v češtině - dokument nenalezen

Research Journal Articles Working Papers Research in Brief Series Dissertations Other Publications Featured Article Dissertations Date: Tuesday, June 02, 2009 - 10:30 Branislav Saxa: "Essays on Exporting Behavior of Firms and on Inflation Persistence" Dissertation Committee: Jan Hanousek (chair) Evžen Kočenda Lubomír Lízal Krešimir Žigić Abstract: In the first two essays, I examine the behavior of exporters and non-exporters using a rich firmlevel panel data source from the Czech Republic. The first essay reacts to recent literature on learning-by exporting and explores whether exporting firms are more productive because initially more productive firms self-select themselves into exporting or because exporting firms are becoming more productive. To provide convincing estimates, one must be able to disentangle learning-by-exporting from changes in company management that induce the company to both start exporting and introduce productivity increasing measures. Therefore, I compare estimates based on matching on propensity score, which do not control for potential management changes, to estimates based on an instrumental variables strategy. Specifically, I focus on firms that start exporting due to changes in the industry-specific ratio of producer prices on domestic and foreign markets. The results suggest...