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Journal of International Trade and Economic DevelopmentVolume 24, Issue 4, 19 May 2015, Pages 499-522

Importing, exporting and the productivity of services firms in Sub-Saharan Africa(Article)(Open Access)

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  • aVienna Institute for International Economic Studies (wiiw), Vienna, Austria
  • bInvestment and Technology Unit, United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), Vienna, Austria
  • cDepartment of Economics, Vienna University of Business and Economics, Vienna, Austria

Abstract

We examine productivity differences between trading and non-trading firms in the services sector using data on a sample of 19 Sub-Saharan African countries. A variety of parametric and non-parametric tests are implemented in order to examine whether exporters, importers and two-way traders perform better than non-traders, and whether there are differences in performance between different types of trading firms. Our results indicate that services firms that are engaged in international trade perform significantly better than those firms that trade on the domestic market only. While two-way traders tend to perform better than importers only and exporters only, few differences in performance are found between these latter two groups. © 2014, Taylor & Francis.

Author keywords

exportsimportsproductivityservices firmsSub-Saharan Africa

Funding details

Funding sponsor Funding number Acronym
European Commission
See opportunities by EC		EC

  • 1

    The dataset used in this paper is an output of the project ‘Survey of Enterprises in Selected ACP countries’ funded by the European Commission.

  • ISSN: 09638199
  • Source Type: Journal
  • Original language: English
  • DOI: 10.1080/09638199.2014.926386
  • Document Type: Article
  • Publisher: Routledge

  Foster-McGregor, N.; Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (wiiw), Vienna, Austria
© Copyright 2015 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

Cited by 3 documents

Luken, R.A. , Clarence-Smith, E.
Greening Industrialization in Sub-Saharan Africa
(2020) Greening Industrialization in Sub-Saharan Africa
Ali, J. , Yusuf, N. , Ali, T.
International Export Orientation and Firm’s Performance: Evidence from Enterprise Survey Data of India
(2018) Journal of Asia-Pacific Business
Foster-McGregor, N. , Isaksson, A. , Kaulich, F.
Importing, Productivity and Absorptive Capacity in Sub-Saharan African Manufacturing and Services Firms
(2016) Open Economies Review
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