This paper investigates the effect of exporting on productivity, often referred to as “learning by exporting”, in the context of global value chains (GVCs). Although the rise of GVCs raised hopes that it would facilitate knowledge transfer from technologically advanced foreign buyers, empirical evidence on its role in learning by exporting is scant. We use data of Latvian and Estonian firms to observe how learning by exporting differs across types of exports associated with different kinds of participation in GVCs. We find that productivity gains resulting from export entry are significantly larger for specific types of exports, such as exports of knowledge-intensive services, intermediate goods and re-exports. These exports correspond to activities that generate high value added within GVCs. Our findings indicate that the intensity of interactions with global buyers alongside exporters’ room for technology catch-up define the extent of learning by exporting in GVCs.

中文翻译：

---

全球价值链中的出口和生产率：拉脱维亚和爱沙尼亚的比较证据

本文在全球价值链（GVC）的背景下，研究了出口对生产力的影响，通常被称为“出口学习”。尽管全球价值链的兴起使人们希望能够促进技术先进的外国购买者的知识转移，但是关于其在出口学习中的作用的经验证据很少。我们使用拉脱维亚和爱沙尼亚企业的数据来观察通过出口进行学习的方式在与参与GVC的不同类型相关的出口类型之间是如何不同的。我们发现，对于特定类型的出口，例如知识密集型服务，中间产品和再出口，出口进入所带来的生产率提高要大得多。这些出口对应于在全球价值链中产生高附加值的活动。