Concluding remarks

The literature on export promotion using both firm and country level data has focused on estimating the impact that export promotion programs have on average. While most of the literature tends to suggest that export promotion helps increase exports, we moved further in two important dimensions. First, we examine not only the impact of export promotion on exports, but also on GDP per capita. Indeed, the ultimate objective of export promotion policies is not exports per se, but social and economic growth. We used GDP per capita as a proxy for social and economic growth and found that the returns in terms of GDP per capita are larger than the export returns, which suggests the presence of positive externalities associated with export promotion.

Sustainable Development Goals:

Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions