This paper uses a large plant level panel data set from Germany and a matching approach to look for casual effects of starting to export on plant performance. We find positive effects on growth of employment, labor productivity, and wages.

From a model by Hopenhayn, three hypotheses can be derived: (H1) Firms that exit in year t were less productive in t-1 than firms that continue to produce in t. (H2) Firms that enter in year t are less productive than incumbent firms in year t. (H3) Surviving firms from an entry cohort were more...