Francisco Requena Silvente

Changing export status and firm performance: evidence from UK small firms

The export premium is measured for a sample of 1940 small-sized UK manufacturing firms over the period 1994–2000 by evaluating the performance of entrants versus exiters in the foreign markets. It is found that new exporters witnessed a substantial increase in their employment, wages, sales and productivity growth rates compared to non-exporters. On average the estimated export premium coefficient varied from 5% in productivity to 1% in wages. Companies that interrupt the exporting activity suffered significant losses in employment, employees’ wages, directors wages, sales and productivity. The negative estimated impact on the growth rates vary from −7% for directors wage to −3% in employment and productivity.

Is Spain a lumpy country? A dynamic analysis of the 'lens condition'

We implement the ‘lens condition’ of Deardoff (1994) to investigate whether lumpiness, an excessively uneven geographic distribution of production factors, is large enough to allow for regional specialization of production at different factor prices. Using data from 50 Spanish provinces over the period 1964 to 2001, we show that Spain evolved from being a lumpy economy to a state where lumpiness no longer mattered.