Export Decision Under Risk

51 Pages Posted: 29 Nov 2016

See all articles by José de Sousa

José de Sousa

Universite Paris I Pantheon-Sorbonne; Université Rennes I

Anne-Célia Disdier

Paris School of Economics (PSE)

Carl Gaigne

French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) - UMR 1302 SMART

Date Written: October 20, 2016

Abstract

Using firm and industry data, we establish two facts: (i) Uncertainty about demand conditions not only reduces export sales and exporting probabilities but also makes exports less sensitive to trade policy; (ii) the most productive exporters are more affected by higher industry-wide expenditure volatility than the least productive exporters. We rationalize these regularities by developing a new firmbased trade model wherein managers are risk averse. Higher volatility induces the reallocation of export shares from the most to the least productive incumbents. Greater skewness of the demand distribution and/or higher trade cost weaken this effect. Our results hold for a large class of consumer utility functions.

Keywords: firm exports, demand uncertainty, risk aversion, expenditure volatility, skewness

JEL Classification: D210, D220, F120, F140

Suggested Citation

de Sousa, José and Disdier, Anne-Célia and Gaigne, Carl, Export Decision Under Risk (October 20, 2016). CESifo Working Paper Series No. 6134, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2876553 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2876553

José De Sousa

Universite Paris I Pantheon-Sorbonne ( email )

106-112 Bd. de l'Hopital
75634 Paris Cedex 13
France

Université Rennes I ( email )

11 Rue Jean Macé
Rennes, Rennes 35700
France

Anne-Célia Disdier (Contact Author)

Paris School of Economics (PSE) ( email )

48 Boulevard Jourdan
Paris, 75014 75014
France

Carl Gaigne

French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) - UMR 1302 SMART ( email )

4 allée Adolphe Bobierre
CS 61103
Rennes Cedex, 35011
France

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