Exporters' characteristics and the margins of trade

This paper investigates the influence of exporting countries' characteristics on the number of exporters (extensive margin) and the average exports value per firm (intensive margin). For that purpose, we use a new database compiled by the OECD and Eurostat in the year 2005, which allows the calculation of trade margins in bilateral relationships involving a large number of exporting and importing countries. We find that there is almost a one-to-one relationship between exporters' GDP and the number of firms that participate in export markets. This proportionality remains when wedecompose GDP into an employment component and a labor productivity component. Our results also show that exporters' labor productivity is positively linked with the intensive margin of exports.