174 Africa in the New Trade Environment
Table 4.7
Summary Statistics on Sub-Saharan African Firms: Exporters and Innovators
a. Statistics on exporters and innovators Export Variable Number of firms Percent of total sample Acquisition of technology Percent of total sample Adaptation of new production Percent of total sample Research and development Percent of total sample
Do not export
Innovate
Do not innovate
767
158
Innovate 1,265
All firms
Do not innovate
Total
657
2,847
27
6
44
23
100
107
223
323
832
1,485
7
15
22
56
100
110
221
319
831
1,481
7
20
22
56
100
85
243
217
926
1,471
6
17
15
63
100
b. Export strategies conditional on innovation Intraregional
Farthest markets
Sub-Saharan Africa
China
India
European Union
United States
Acquisition of technology (%)
22
23
19
18
18
100
Adaptation of new production (%)
19
13
17
27
24
100
Research and development (%)
10
17
12
35
26
100
Variable
Total
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.
