Innovation activities and learning processes in the crisis: evidence from Italian export in manufacturing and services

Are there any factors driving firms' internationalization process other than productivity? By means of a firm-level data set on manufacturing and production services sectors collected by MET, this article investigates the export performance of enterprises in Italy in the aftermath of the recent economic crisis. Our results suggest that productivity is not the only (and most important) determinant in this matter. Innovation activity and learning processes are indeed pivotal in boosting enterprises to sell their products abroad and, to a certain extent, in backing their success on foreign markets. In particular, by estimating dynamic probability models, as well as Tobit II-Heckman and two-part models, we provide evidence that firm's ability to learn from its past export experiences lowers international trade informal barriers, while its ability to learn, thanks to local spillovers, is important in terms of both extensive and intensive performances on foreign markets.