Understanding manufactured exporters at the firm-level: new insights from using SARS administrative data

South Africa - 21 November 2017

South African work on firm-level data has been limited by a lack of access to large datasets that track firms over time. This paper overcomes this constraint by analysing a new dataset of the population of manufacturing firms that are matched to their export transactions. South African firm-level exporting is similar to the stylised facts of firm-level exporting found internationally. Moreover, heterogeneity that exists within exporting is evident. Exporters differ not only in terms of the amounts they export but also in terms of the number of products in their export basket and the destinations they export to. These in turn are related to firm-level characteristics, including productivity.

Available from: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/saje.12158/full

Author