There is limited empirical evidence measuring productive capabilities and analysing their effect on firm-level export performance in Africa. This paper constructs novel indicators of productive capabilities and examines their effects on the export performance of African firms. Using recent firm-level data from the World Bank Enterprise Survey across 29 African countries, the paper builds new indicators of productive capabilities, which are conceptualised as a combination of technological and production capabilities. Estimating a censored regression model, we find that both technological and production capabilities are important drivers of firms’ direct export performance. This suggests that superior productive capabilities enhance the efficiency and competitiveness of firms, leading to improvements in their export performance. The findings underscore the importance of policies that support the strengthening of productive capabilities in African countries.

衡量生产能力并分析其对非洲公司一级出口业绩的影响的经验证据有限。本文构建了新的生产能力指标，并考察了它们对非洲企业出口绩效的影响。利用世界银行在29个非洲国家中进行的企业调查的最新公司级数据，该白皮书建立了生产能力的新指标，这些指标在概念上是技术能力和生产能力的组合。通过估计删失回归模型，我们发现技术和生产能力都是企业直接出口绩效的重要驱动力。这表明卓越的生产能力提高了企业的效率和竞争力，从而改善了其出口业绩。