摘要：I present a dynamic fixed cost model of export participation extended by a capitaltheoretic concept of the customer stock. Plants that want to start exporting have toinvest into a market specific factor which serves as input into a decreasing returnsto scale technology generating sales demand. Customer capital, like phyical capital,depreciates over time and its accumulation is subject to adjustment costs. It allows themodel to reproduce the empirical fact that new exporters show above average revenuegrowth rates and a declining exit hazard in the years after entry. I structurally estimatethe model on a rich panel data set of German manufacturing plants between 1995 and2008. During the observed time span, plants in the sample saw a strong increase inexport activity which provides a suitable case study for the predictive power of themodel. Unlike a pure fixed cost version, the model correctly forecasts a steep risein exports after 2003. It is also able to reconcile a strong export reaction to tradeliberalizations with a low elasticity of aggregate exports to exchange rate movements.Customer capital accumulation therefore offers a potential resolution to the elasticitypuzzle in international economics.
关键词：customers as capital; firm entry; firm heterogeneity; export dynamics; sunk;costs; international business cycles
