This paper exploits a firm-level dataset for nineteen sub-Saharan African countries that provides information on the share of total sales to government entities to provide new insights into the relative importance of participation in public procurement activity for different types of firms. The data suggest that foreign-owned firms often account for a large share of total public procurement, illustrating the importance of FDI as a channel to contest procurement markets. Participation in public procurement is positively associated with different measures of firm performance. This is most strongly the case for domestic firms, especially small companies, and firms engaged in manufacturing activities. The positive association increases with the share of foreign firms in total public procurement, suggesting more open policy environments enhance local competitiveness.

中文翻译：

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外国参与公共采购和企业绩效：撒哈拉以南非洲的证据

本文利用了撒哈拉以南非洲19个国家的企业级数据集，该数据集提供了对政府实体的总销售额份额的信息，从而为参与不同类型企业的公共采购活动的相对重要性提供了新的见解。数据表明，外资公司通常占公共采购总额的很大一部分，这说明外国直接投资作为竞争采购市场的渠道的重要性。参与公共采购与企业绩效的不同衡量指标呈正相关。对于国内公司，尤其是小型公司以及从事制造活动的公司，情况尤其如此。随着外国公司在公共采购总额中所占份额的增加，这种积极的联系会增加