Cross-border and foreign-affiliate sales of services : evidence from German micro-data

We merge German balance-of-payments and foreign-affiliate-trade statistics to obtain data about trade in commercial services at the firm level. We use these data to study export market participation and the choice of export mode: cross-border versus foreign affiliate sales. We find that for firms in our sample productivity is both a statistically significant and economically important determinant of the export participation and export mode choice. We also identify the role of industry- and country-specific determinants. -- International trade ; trade in services ; supply modes ; commercial presence ; foreign direct investment ; multinational enterprises ; firm heterogeneity