Learning-by-Exporting Revisited: The Role of Intensity and Persistence*

Two non-mutually exclusive hypotheses can explain the empirically established export premium: self-selection of more productive firms into export markets and learning-by-exporting. This paper focuses on how the temporal dimension of firms' exporting activities and the intensity of exports influence the scope of learning effects. Using a panel of Swedish firms and dynamic generalized method of moments estimation, we find a learning effect among persistent exporters with high export intensity, but not among temporary exporters or persistent exporters with low export intensity. For small firms, exports boost productivity among persistent exporters with both high and low export intensity, but the effect is stronger for persistent export-intensive small firms.