Public programmes to promote firms’ exports in developing countries: are there heterogeneous effects by size categories?

Abstract

Several countries have implemented programmes to support their firms’ internationalization efforts. Their impacts are likely to be heterogeneous over firm size categories because these programmes are primarily intended and expected to benefit smaller companies. Whether this is or not the case is still an open question. In this article, we aim at filling this gap in the literature by providing evidence on the effects of trade promotion programmes on the export performance of firms within different size segments using a rich firm level dataset for Argentina over the period 2002 to 2006. We find that these effects are indeed larger for smaller firms.