THE IMPACT OF INTERNATIONAL QUALITY STANDARD CERTIFICATION (IQSC) FOR ETHIOPIAN AND EGYPTIAN FIRMS’ PARTICIPATION IN EXPORT MARKET

Export is considered as the backbone of a country’s economy. Export plays a vigorous role in the economic growth of a country. But a company’s decision of becoming an export firm has certain constraints. This paper examines The International Quality Standard Certification (IQSC) and the firm's participation in the export market of Egypt and Ethiopia. By considering the volume, Egypt is one of the top exporters in Africa, while Ethiopia is considered an average exporter. We tend to find why some country’s firms try to export more while others are less. Does the International Quality Standard Certification (IQSC) matter for firms’ participation in the export market? How different are the characteristics of exporting firms in different countries? What other factors determine the firms’ participation in the export market. We found that firms having IQSC export more than the firms that don’t have IQSC and they have a comparative advantage. Due to economies of scale and higher efficiency, large firms have an advantage over small and medium firms on exporting to international markets. The firm’s age is not an important factor for the probability to export. Productive, aged, foreign-owned and large firms usually export more than their counterparts. KEY WORDS: IQSC (International Quality Standard Certificate), International Trade, Export Decision, Probit model analysis, IV regression.

Exports of Spanish manufacturing firms and financial constraints

We investigate the role of financial constraints on firms’ exporting behavior, including firms’ export decision, export intensity, firms starting to export decision, and exports persistence. Our financial constraints variable is a synthetic variable that summarizes information on different dimensions such as total assets, profitability, liquidity, solvency, repaying ability, and (new in this type of analyses) the cost of external financing. Using data on Spanish manufacturing for the period 1992–2014, we find evidence supporting that financial health is relevant to explain small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) exporting decisions and starting to export decisions but not those of large firms. Financial health does not seem to affect large firms’ export intensity and the results of the impact of financial health on SMEs export intensity are not conclusive. Nevertheless, financial health is a determinant of export persistence of large firms and SMEs. JEL CLASSIFICATION: F14; G32; L60; C35

The effects of cash in advance on export decision: the case of Vietnam

This paper investigates the effect of cash in advance (CIA) on the export decision in Vietnamese firms in the face of financial and institutional constraints. We find that the CIA has a positive relationship with the probability of export in the institutionally constrained firms, and this effect becomes pronounced when those firms are small and medium-sized or also suffer financial constraints. This finding suggests that the CIA does help firms export by mitigating the joint effects of constraints imposed on Vietnamese small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).