This paper investigates the immigration-trade link using data on individual exporting transactions and immigrants in Spanish provinces between 1995 and 2008. We quantify the impact of new immigrants on the extensive margin (number of transactions) and intensive margin (average value per transaction) of exports. We find that immigrants significantly increase exports and that the effect is almost entirely due to an increase in the extensive margin. Consistent with the idea that immigrants reduce the fixed cost of exporting, we find stronger effects for differentiated goods and for countries that are culturally distant from Spain. JEL classification: F10, R12 L'effet de création de commerce des immigrants: résultats dans le cas remarquable de l'Espagne. Ce texteétudie le lien immigration-commerce internationalà l'aide de données sur les transactions individuelles d'exportation et sur les immigrants dans les provinces espagnoles entre 1995 et 2008. On quantifie l'impact des nouveaux immigrantsà la marge extensive (nombre de transactions d'exportation) età la marge intensive (valeur moyenne des transactions d'exportation) . On découvre que les immigrants déclenchent une augmentation significative des exportations, et que cet effet est presqu'entièrement attribuableà un accroissementà la marge extensive. En ligne avec l'idée que les immigrants réduisent les coûts fixes de l'exportation, on découvre des effets plus forts pour les produits différenciés et pour des pays qui sont distants culturellement de l'Espagne.Giovanni Peri is also affiliated with NBER. We are grateful to Miklos Koren and the participants at FREIT USA Conference 2009 for helpful comments. Francisco Requena acknowledges financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (project number ECO 2008-04059/ECON), Generalitat Valenciana (program PROMETEO/2009/098) and Jose Castillejo Schoolarship, which sponsored his stay at University of California, Davis, during the academic year 2008-9.

This article uses survival analysis to investigate the duration of Spanish firms' trade relationships by destination over 1997–2006. Whereas firm export status is highly persistent, firms' destination portfolio is very dynamic: a typical firm‐country exporting relationship has a median duration of 2 years. Yet, if a firm manages to export to a country beyond 2 years the risk of exiting that market sharply falls afterwards. The results indicate that not only firm heterogeneity but also destination heterogeneity are crucial to explain survival in export markets. In particular, country (political) risk heavily shapes the effect of firm, product, and other destination characteristics on the length of trade relationships. Whereas firm productivity, comparative advantage, partners' GDP, and proximity enhance duration of trade with low‐risk countries, they have no effect on trade survival with high‐risk countries. On the contrary, information spillovers are particularly relevant to enhance survival of trade relationships with high‐risk countries. (JEL C41, F10, F14)

This paper studies the dynamics of the export behaviour of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the U.K. between 1994 and 1998. I use a dynamic empirical model to disentangle three distinct dimensions of a firms’ participation in foreign markets: sunk cost induced hysteresis, firm heterogeneity and macroeconomic instability. The results show that SMEs view exporting as an irreversible investment, with state dependence being the largest explanatory factor. Moreover, observable firm characteristics, such as size and ownership, play a significant role in distinguishing exporters from non-exporters. Finally, there is no evidence that the 1992–1993 recession influenced firms’ export decisions in subsequent years implying that the results provide a valid indication of SMEs "typical" export behaviour. Copyright Springer 2005entry-exit decision, markets, probit, panel techniques,

El acceso a la versión del editor puede requerir la suscripción del recurso Access to the published version may require subscription