Learning by Exporting through Access to Foreign Technical Service Markets

Using data from the entire pool of manufacturing plants in Chile from 1990 to 1996, I find evidence for a specific channel through which learning by exporting can happen: domestic exporters gain enhanced access to foreign technical and professional services by virtue of their presence in the foreign market and actively use it to acquire productivity improving capabilities. I first show that there are complementarities between exporting and foreign techni- cal service markets access either to receive training or to use foreign technology. Using the propensity-score matching technique to control for self-selection I match firms within narrowly defined industries. Using the dierence in dierence