Exporters and Innovators

Table 4.7 Summary Statistics on Sub-Saharan African Firms: Exporters and Innovators

a. Statistics on exporters and innovators

Export Do not export All firms

Variable Innovate Do not innovate Innovate Do not innovate Total

Number of firms

767 158 1,265 657 2,847 Percent of total sample 27 6 44 23 100 Acquisition of technology 107 223 323 832 1,485 Percent of total sample 7 15 22 56 100 Adaptation of new production 110 221 319 831 1,481 Percent of total sample 7 20 22 56 100 Research and development 85 243 217 926 1,471 Percent of total sample 6 17 15 63 100

b. Export strategies conditional on innovation

Variable Intraregional Farthest markets

Sub-Saharan

Africa China India European Union United States Total

Acquisition of technology (%) Adaptation of new production (%) Research and development (%) 22 23 19 18 18 100

19 13 17 27 24 100

10 17 12 35 26 100

Source: World Bank calculations. Note: “Acquisition of technology” includes patents, licenses, design, know-how, and nonpatented innovations. “Adaptation of new production” also includes new business processes.

Productivity Gains of Sub-Saharan African Firms with a Dominant Position in the Asian Market

In the more recent literature on international trade and firm-level performance, attention has been paid to the issue of whether there are productivity differences between different types of destination markets and, in particular, between high- and low-income regions (De Loecker 2007; Serti and Tomasi 2008). To observe whether export premiums are different depending on the destination market, we split the sample into the nine locations identified. Because these markets are often served by the same firm, we consider a destination to be “dominant” if it receives the highest share of the firm’s exports. Following the same approach as earlier, we estimate the productivity gains from exporting separately for the nine destination markets. Table 4.8 reports the means of kernel estimates for firms exporting to different destination markets.