Abstract

Do firms prepare their labor force if they intend to export or if they want to increase their chances to become exporters? Or does exporting itself make firms change their labor force qualification and composition? Preliminary evidence from the IAB establishment panel points towards a strong correlation between on-the-job training and foreign market presence of firms.
In this project we explore the relation between on-the-job training and exporting behavior of firms. We will use instrumental variables to show causality of how on-the-job training might increase or decrease the probability of firms to enter foreign markets. We also intend to test the potential reverse causality of already exporting on the incentive of firms to train their workers. This can be done with the help of a propensity score matching estimation.
We intend to explore further firm-level characteristics and activities, which are described in the IAB establishment panel and test their correlation and potential causality related to exporting.
We employ data from the IAB establishment panel in combination with UN Comtrade data on product-level, bilateral trade flows in order to build the intended instrumental variables.