Firm heterogeneity and export activity of European firms

Abstract

Heterogeneous-firm trade theories show that the international activity of firms is related both to the host countries characteristics and the own firms’ characteristics. In this framework we study the export activity of European firms. Concretely, our empirical objective is twofold: trying to establish the link between the efficiency of the European exporting firms and large areas of destination of their goods; and determining if there is a correspondence between the level of efficiency of these firms and the number of areas where they export. To develop our empirical analysis and using firm-level data (EFIGE), we employ a multinomial logit model. Additionally, we also estimate marginal effects as a complementary analysis. The main overcomes allow us to conclude that there is a significant relationship between the efficiency level of European firms and the market scope and, furthermore, that there are limited differences between firms that export to different single markets.