PRODUCTIVITY AND THE EXPORT MARKET - A FIRM-LEVEL ANALYSIS

An empirical model is developed to distinguish the roles of resource-l evel differences from productivity differences in explaining output di fferences between exporters and non-exporters of Taiwanese electronic products. Our results indicate that the larger size of exporters relat ive to non-exporters explains the bulk of the difference in output bet ween the two groups of producers. Nevertheless, there are significant differences in productivity levels between exporters and non-exporters in three out of the four products examined. The contribution of these differences to output differences between the two groups of producers vary from 3 to 20%, depending on the electronic product and model spe cification.