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How to Combine High Sunk Costs of Exporting and Low Export Survival
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How to Combine High Sunk Costs of Exporting and Low Export Survival

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In endeavouring to explain the empirical puzzle that the sunk costs of exporting are important, but that, at the same time, trade flows do not, on average, survive for very long, this paper explores the concepts of core and peripheral markets. First, it illustrates that if the importance of sunk costs as well as the expected future returns from exporting are different, depending on whether the export decision refers to a core or a peripheral market, it is plausible that while firms will tend to stay on the core market for a long time, they will enter and exit the peripheral market much more frequently. Second, using firm-product-destination-specific export data for all firms in the Swedish food chain for the period 1997-2007, an empirical test is carried out to ascertain whether there is support for the hypothesis that trade duration will be longer for core markets. Employing two variables that capture different aspects of the core/periphery dimension, it is found that firms will indeed tend to stay longer in their core markets, while export decisions regarding peripheral markets are much less long-term. The conclusion, therefore, is that the empirical puzzle can be explained by taking into account the fact that the trade hysteresis literature builds on data on the core market decision to export or not, and that the trade survival literature also includes data on decisions to stay in or exit peripheral markets.

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  • Gullstrand, Joakim & Persson, Maria, 2012. "How to Combine High Sunk Costs of Exporting and Low Export Survival," Working Papers 2012:32, Lund University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:lunewp:2012_032
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    4. Türkcan, Kemal, 2016. "On the role of vertical differentiation in enhancing survival of export flows: Evidence from a developing country," MPRA Paper 71023, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Bojnec, Štefan & Fertő, Imre, 2018. "Economic Crisis and the Fragility of Comparative Advantage in European Agriculture," German Journal of Agricultural Economics, Humboldt-Universitaet zu Berlin, Department for Agricultural Economics, vol. 67(3), September.
    6. Joachim Wagner, 2016. "A survey of empirical studies using transaction level data on exports and imports," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 152(1), pages 215-225, February.
    7. Tinoush Jamali Jaghdani & Ulf Johansen & Maitri Thakur & Thomas Glauben, 2024. "Salmon trade duration: The application of firm‐level trade transaction data from the Norwegian salmon industry," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 40(2), pages 325-348, April.
    8. Xuqian Hu & Canfei He, 2020. "Nontariff measures, trade deflection, and market expansion of exporters in China," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(3), pages 932-953, September.
    9. Bandick, Roger, 2020. "Global sourcing, firm size and export survival," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 14, pages 1-29.
    10. Arnarson, Björn Thor, 2015. "Bridging Trade Barriers: Evaluating Models of Multi-Product Exporters," Working Papers 2015:6, Lund University, Department of Economics, revised 14 Oct 2016.
    11. Silviano Esteve‐Pérez, 2021. "Previous experience, experimentation and export survival: Evidence from firm‐product‐destination level data," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(9), pages 2638-2682, September.
    12. Shiguang Peng & Le Wang & Lei Xu, 2024. "Impact of non‐tariff measures on the survival of China's fresh fruit exports," Asian-Pacific Economic Literature, The Crawford School, The Australian National University, vol. 38(1), pages 145-170, May.
    13. Martina Lawless & Zuzanna Studnicka, 2024. "Old Firms and New Export Flows: Does Experience Increase Survival?," Open Economies Review, Springer, vol. 35(2), pages 215-243, April.
    14. Hayakawa, Kazunobu & Kimura, Fukunari & Laksanapanyakul, Nuttawut, 2016. "Firm-level trade creation and diversion of regional trade agreements in Thailand," IDE Discussion Papers 621, Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization(JETRO).
    15. Marcel Berg & Ahmed Boutorat & Loe Franssen & Angie Mounir, 2022. "Intermittent exporting: unusual business or business as usual?," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 158(4), pages 1173-1198, November.
    16. M. Padmaja & Subash Sasidharan, 2021. "Financing constraints and exports: evidence from India," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 45(1), pages 118-145, January.
    17. Majune Kraido Socrates & Eliud Moyi & Kamau Gathiaka, 2020. "Explaining Export Duration in Kenya," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 88(2), pages 204-224, June.
    18. Luis Felipe Beltrán Morales, 2022. "Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Export Survival from Latin American Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-16, July.
    19. Jeong, Jaehoon & Yang, Jae-Suk, 2023. "Why do some firms stop exporting?," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(4).
    20. Eliane Choquette, 2019. "Import-based market experience and firms’ exit from export markets," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 50(3), pages 423-449, April.
    21. Jaghdani, Tinoush Jamali & Johansen, Ulf & Thakur, Maitri, 2022. "The Duration and Survival of Salmon Export by Norwegian Firms in the International Markets," 62nd Annual Conference, Stuttgart, Germany, September 7-9, 2022 329609, German Association of Agricultural Economists (GEWISOLA).
    22. HAYAKAWA Kazunobu & MATSUURA Toshiyuki, 2017. "Overseas Production Expansion and Domestic Transaction Networks," Discussion papers 17085, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    23. Heiko Dreyer & Svetlana Fedoseeva, 2016. "Gravity Models and Asymmetric Exchange Rate Effects: Insights from German Beer Exports," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(2), pages 289-295, April.
    24. Pişkin, Erhan, 2017. "Türkiye İhracatının Ölüm-Kalım Meselesi [The Matter of Survival for Turkish Exports]," MPRA Paper 81459, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Sunk Costs; Trade Duration; Survival; Core v. Peripheral Markets; Sweden; Firm-Level Data; Discrete-Time Hazard Models;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F10 - International Economics - - Trade - - - General
    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade

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