Exporting Spanish Firms. Stylized Facts and Trends

Abstract

During the last years, Spanish goods exports have increased signifi cantly against a background of widening of the Spanish fi rms exporting base. This change has been led by SMEs, although there is still a high concentration of international sales in a small fraction of large and stable exporters. In any case, potential export growth has improved thanks to the widening of stable exporters base and to their geographical diversifi cation towards emerging markets. Exporting fi rms are greater and have higher labour productivity than those focused only in domestic markets. Also within exporting fi rms, those with stable and diversifi ed external fl ows are positively selected in terms of productivity and size. The potential widening of the stable exporting base would require an improvement of the effi ciency of the segment of SMEs. Removing potential regulatory barriers that might restrict their growth and innovation ability is key to consolidate their presence in international markets in the long run.

Exporters' reaction to positive foreign demand shocks

“…This may bias the results since I am selecting firms that survived during the whole period of analysis and, therefore, are likely to be "better" than the average exporter. 16 Column 3 of Table 6 presents the estimates for a sample of firms that exported to China at least in one of the pre-ASF years (2016, 2017, or 2018) and one of the post-ASF years (2019 or 2020). 17 Panel A presents the results for the impact of the ASF on exports to China.…”

“…16 16 Gutiérrez‐Chacón and Martín‐Machuca (2019) showed that Spanish firms exporting regularly for 4 years or more are larger and have higher labor productivity than those that do not.…”