Exporter Premia, Self‐selection and Learning‐by‐exporting: Evidence from Listed Firms in Türkiye

The prevailing view claims that exporter firms (E) have advantages (exporter premia) over non-exporter firms (NE) in many respects. This study examines whether exporter premiums exist for the Turkish manufacturing industry and analyses the relationship between firm’s export and productivity. The sample covers the period between 2016:Q3-2023:Q2 and 139 firms listed on Borsa İstanbul. Dataset consists of firm-based (micro) data. In the study, firstly, statistical comparison is made and it is found that exporter firms are mostly composed of larger firms, employ more employees, have higher productivity and profitability than non-exporters. Secondly, industry-level panel data analyses are applied for econometric model. According to the results of the analyses; exports, average wages and profitability are found to increase firm productivity. Lastly, with the method of Granger Bootstrap panel causality analysis revealed that there are causality relationships both from export to productivity and from productivity to export. Thus, it was concluded that both self-selection and learning-by-exporting effects exist in the Turkish manufacturing industry.