EXPORT BEHAVIOUR OF MANUFACTURING FIRMS IN INDONESIA, 1990-2000

This paper examines export behaviour of manufacturing firms in Indonesia. We use firm-level data from survey of medium and large Indonesian manufacturing industries over the period 1990-2000. Using panel data regression technique, we find the following regularities. First, there is a persistency in the firm’s decision to export as well as proportion of exported output. Second, higher wage, larger number of production employment, higher productivity and higher share of foreign ownership lead to higher probability of a firm to export. Third, higher wage leads to higher proportion of exported output. However, higher productivity or higher share of foreign ownership leads to lower proportion of exported output. Fourth, while real exchange rate does not significantly affect the probability of firms to export, it significantly affects the proportion of exported output. Fifth, both probability to export and proportion of exported output was significantly much lower during the 1997/1998’s Asian crisis. Finally, looking at the export behaviour across industries, the estimation results show that there is a variation of export behavior across industries. Keywords: Export, manufacture, Indonesia. JEL Classification: F14, F13, D2