Survey_MMO_2016

Abstract

We use the same data source for firm exports (described in Section 2) as Mayer, Melitz and Ottaviano (2014), extended to cover multiple years from 1995-2005. All firms operating in the French metropolitan territory must report their export sales according to the following criteria: Exports to each EU destination whenever within-EU exports exceeds 100,000 Euros,3 and exports to non-EU country whenever exports to that destination exceeds 1,000 Euros or a ton. Despite these limitations, the database is nearly comprehensive. For instance, in 2005, 103,220 firms report exports across 234 destination countries (or territories) for 9873 products. This represents data on over 2.2 million shipments. We restrict our analysis to firms whose main activity is classified as manufacturing to ensure that firms take part in the production of the goods they export.4 This leaves us with data covering more than a million shipments by firms across all manufacturing sectors.5 Matched balance-sheet data provide us with information on variables that are needed to assess firm productivity such as turnover, value added, employment, investment, raw material use and capital. However, we can only measure product reallocations in terms of sales in export markets as the breakdown of sales across products for the domestic market is not available to us. We will have to take this into account in designing our estimation strategy. The balance-sheet data we have access to comes in two sources where the official identification number of the firm can be matched with customs information. The first source is the EAE, produced by the national statistical institute, and exhaustive for manufacturing firms with size exceeding 20 employees. The second is BRN, which comes from tax authorities, and includes a broader coverage of firms, since it is based on the firm’s legal tax regime and a relatively low sales threshold. Whenever firm data is available from both sources, we give precedence to the EAE data (which is more closely monitored by the statistical authorities).