Learning from exporting revisited in a less developed setting

This study asks if firms become more productive by learning through exporting. We do so by estimating production functions using a panel dataset of Indonesian manufacturing establishments from 1990 to 1996. In contrast to previous studies of more developed countries, we find strong evidence that firms experience a jump in productivity of about 2% to 5% following the initiation of exporting. The timing of the performance improvement suggests learning from exporting rather than just self-selection of better firms into export markets. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.