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The impact of trade promotion services on Canadian exporter performance
Author(s) -
Van Biesebroeck Johannes,
Yu Emily,
Chen Shenjie
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
canadian journal of economics/revue canadienne d'économique
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.773
H-Index - 69
eISSN - 1540-5982
pISSN - 0008-4085
DOI - 10.1111/caje.12148
Subject(s) - margin (machine learning) , destinations , business , promotion (chess) , boosting (machine learning) , product (mathematics) , international economics , identification (biology) , international trade , export performance , economics , botany , geometry , mathematics , tourism , machine learning , politics , computer science , political science , law , biology
From 1999 to 2006, Canadian firms successfully diversified their exports to destinations beyond the United States while smaller firms increased their share in total exports. Both are explicit aims of the Trade Commissioner Service export promotion program. Exploiting assumptions from the treatment effects literature, we identify a causal, export‐boosting effect. In contrast with existing evidence for Latin American countries, the intensive margin effect—higher exports to existing product‐destination markets—dominates. Effects at the extensive margin—exporting more products to more destinations—are smaller and sensitive to identification assumptions. We interpret this evidence in light of trade models with heterogeneous firms.