Score contribution per author:
α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count
A framework is developed to explain export participation among firms that produce differentiated products and may choose to exert costly effort to find foreign buyers. Export participation is linked to firm search costs, importer search costs, tariffs, the rate of contract breakdown, the distribution of bargaining power, and the degree of product differentiation. Propositions are derived that shed light on historic changes in export participation among firms while also generating hypotheses for further study. The model is applied to small U.S. food manufacturers and is shown to be able to explain changes in export participation among such firms.