摘要：Self-selection of productive firms to exporting suggests that non-exporters are less productive and locked out of international markets due to low productivity. Using a panel dataset of 88,752 New Zealand agriculture and forestry sector firms over the period 2000-07, this paper measures the productivity of exporters and non-exporters separately. The paper finds that exporters are, on average, twice as productive as non-exporters. Across both exporters and non-exporters, we report a mixed rate of productivity growth: negative until the median and positive beyond. Exporters record a higher negative growth rate relative to non-exporters (below the median) and also a higher positive growth rate (beyond the median). Analysis of the productivity distribution in quantiles suggests that the sub-set of non-exporters who have productivity levels similar to that of exporters is large. For this sub-set of firms, it would be erroneous to conclude that the export propensity decision is determined by low productivity
