External Trade and Internal Geography: Local Export Spillovers by Industry Characteristics and Firm Size

Exporting firms in a region may reduce export entry costs for other local firms either through market or non-market interactions. This paper tests this proposition by analyzing whether the probability of exporting among Swedish firms is positively associated with the local presence of exporters in their region and industry. Our results support this conjecture, while also providing some support for such export spillovers being more important in contract-intensive industries and small firms. The results for different industries and size-classes of firms are also sensitive to whether we focus on firms' export status or restrict the sample to export starters