Why Learning by Exporting May Not Be As Common As You Think and What It Means for Policy

International trade economists are convinced that there is a two-way relationshipbetween productivity and exports – not only the most productive firmsself-select into export markets, but also exporters improve their technologydue to international expansion. In spite of this optimistic view, empirical studiesprovide only weak (if any) evidence on learning by exporting. This discrepancybetween theory and empirics is usually explained with methodologicalproblems. However, there are also some theoretical reasons why one maythink that learning by exporting is a wrong or highly limited hypothesis. Thepaper presents why learning by exporting may not happen and how policymakerscan stimulate learning from foreign markets (and hence economicgrowth).