How do firms in Argentina get financing to export?

This paper, developed in the context of the CompNet initiative, delves into the importance of access to financing for the performance of firms in export markets. Using a unique microeconomic database that combines data on Argentine firms’ characteristics and export performance with information on their domestic and external financing, we provide a rich insight into their financing patterns. We find that: (i) Exporters have more access to bank credit than non-exporters, (ii) firms with more access to bank credit are more likely to start exporting, particularly the medium size ones and (iii) those firms with more access to foreign financing export a wider variety of products and serve more distant and developed markets. We also study the duration of firms in export markets using the Kaplan-Meier estimator. We find that the probability of firms’ survival in export markets increases with their size in the earlier years of exporting. Once firms become regular exporters, their permanence in export markets seems to be less dependent on their size.