Exports and firm survival: do trade regime and productivity matter?

This article aims to investigate the role of trade regime and productivity in the link between exporting and firm survival. We use firm-level data from China to examine whether exporters engaged in different trade regimes and with different levels of productivity react differently with regard to survival probability. We find that exporters engaged in all types of trade regimes have higher survival probabilities in comparison with nonexporters; however, the survival probability of exporters engaged in processing trade is less positively affected by productivity.